"REALLY"...EVEN BACK IN THE DAY?

Isaiah 49:20-21

*THE SCRIPTURE USED TODAY  -20 The children born during your bereavement    will yet say in your hearing,‘This place is too small for us;    give us more space to live in.’21 Then you will say in your heart,    ‘Who bore me these?I was bereaved and barren;    I was exiled and rejected.    Who brought these up?I was left all alone,    but these—where have they come from?’”

*MY INTERPRETATION: While you are in the midst of mourning over a lost love one, your children will have the nerve to complain about their living space and request more. You will ask yourself, “where did these children come from? I feel as if I am the one who is dead and rejected. Did I raise these children to act like this? I feel so alone and yet these children….they surely are not the children I raised.

*MY RESEARCH & REFLECTIONS OF THE PASSAGE APPLIED TO MY LIFE

How many times has my Mom asked herself this question? We-her children- have led her down this path one too many times. Now that we are parents, we have experienced those same emotions. I do not know how many times I have stated to my husband, “we did not raise her to be that way! Why does she act like that?” Well, obviously it is nothing new. If it occurred over 2000 years ago and was significant enough to leave it’s mark in the bible, then it was significant enough to inform us we are not in this alone. I don’t really know that that is a good thing or that it is even very reassuring, though. Nevertheless, eventually we look at those offspring of ours in pure amazement, with jaws hanging to the ground and the only thing we can think of is, "REALLY?"

*DEFINITIONS REVIEWED: bereaved be deprived of a loved one through a profound absence, especially due to the loved one's death. barren bleak and lifeless exiled expel and bar (someone) from their native country, typically for political or punitive reasons. rejected dismiss as inadequate