Devotional on Lamentations

2010 – Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

Godโ€™s love dominating even a bleak landscape
Lamentations 3: God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out.
The beautiful state of Colorado boasts over 50 “fourteeners.” These are mountain peaks that rise to heights of 14,000 feet or more. Likely the most famous of all the fourteeners is Pikes Peak. That mountain isn’t the tallest of the big ones of Colorado but it’s special because it stands alone on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. Some say that on a clear day it can be seen from as far away as the Colorado-Kansas state line many miles distant. Pikes Peak comes to mind as I read the central part of Lamentations 3. Not only is it a beautiful hymn of God’s mercy and love, it rises out of the lowlands of pain and loss that dominate all else in the book. Even as Jeremiah recounts for us the devastation of the fall of Judah; even as he describes God’s anger as his judgment falls on a backslidden nation; even there, Jeremiah finds the loyal and merciful love of God. He encourages us with a vision of God’s love being recreated every morning. I’m encouraged today that right in the middle of the saddest book of the Bible, even as I walk through the desert of loss, pain, and destruction, I can look up and see a fourteener of God’s love and mercy. Even in Lamentations it isn’t “lament” that dominates the landscape: it’s God’s love.
Take Away: The love of the Lord dominates all else.

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