Firm Place

Up early this morning, awakened by a disturbing dream. Since early morning is one of the most peaceful times in our busy household, I crawled out at 5:30, turned on the tree lights, made a cup of coffee and put on George Winston's "December." For whatever reason that music has always been melancholy to me, stirring up deep longings for ... Christmas past? Christmas future? a Christmas that isn't? Yet every year it is a part of my Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks, something through which to work each year. The music works at the knots in me, releasing ... something. Interestingly, this Christmas I've enjoyed it more, and hearing it has brought peace rather than tears. Reconciling with what is. Settling in.

This morning's reading is in Luke 23, and I continue to be amazed at the depth of meaning it brings to read of Christ's passion week, betrayal and crucifixion while gazing at a nativity set. God timed that I would be at this point in my Jesus study at this point in the year. I'm simply enjoying the journey.

Beth Moore remarks on Isaiah 22 in today's study. In a prophetic statement in verse 23 it states,

23 “I will drive him like a peg in a firm place, And he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house.

Beth considers this passage to apply both to its contemporaneous context and to be prophetic of Christ. The context of the readings on the crucifixion certainly intensify the driving of the peg. The word "firm" is the word that draws Beth's attention, and so I looked it up in my Hebrew lexicon.

Firm: # 539 to make firm, to confirm, to support; to be firm, to stand firm, to be enduring, to trust.

Trust is the word of the month. At our church's women's brunch the speaker spoke of the simple words, "Trust Me." During an especially difficult time she wrote those words on an index card and set it on her nightstand. Trust Me.

God will drive us like pegs into firm places. Places that will make us firm. Without being driven to experiencing some hard places, we cannot test our firmness. We cannot test our simple trust.

Does this season bring you to some hard places? Do some of the songs bring out the melancholy in you? Are there stresses testing you?

Be firm. Be enduring. Trust. That's what I'm hearing this morning as I listen to the melodies, sip strong coffee and bask in the twinkles. And I feel hope. Hope that my spot in the firm place is becoming more comfortable. At some point the driving of the peg stops, right? At some point the peg is in the firm place, and the driving, the pounding, the pushing subsides. I am beginning to sense that relief. I don't think I'm going to be taken from the hard place, but there is the promise of holding firm in it.