Joanna Bome Kure

Dear Heavenly Father,

Good evening. My heart is filled to the brim with love for You. The love that helps me understand the disposition of Mary’s heart as she washed Your feet with tears, kissed them and poured expensive perfume on them. Knowing that You are awesome and a God worthy of praise is the best kind of knowledge. It’s the knowledge that fills our praises when Your children come together in Worship. The kind of worship that the Psalmist says is like precious ointment running down the beard of Aaron the High Priest, and is like the dew of Mount Hermon. That kind where there are no instruments, just our voices raised up, carrying in them all our adoration, all our hopes, our dreams, our tears, our devotion, our repentance. It is the knowing that is acknowledged in the opening lines of Psalm one hundred and twenty-one, “I look up to hills, from where comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of the heavens and the earth.”

How wonderful it is to know You alone are our helper, not the rulers of the heavens nor the rulers of the earth. It is in You only that our hopes are raised up and not in make-believe gods made with human hands. Whenever the Church raises its hands, I know without a doubt that You are there. In those moments, there is a sweet feeling, a sweet spot that I like to bottle up and treasure. Talking about it, I feel it may lose that quality of exclusivity. Yet, this feeling currently fills my heart so much that I fear it may burst at its seams.

There is so much hurt in the world. It’s a personal, congregational, national and international hurt. It is the kind that confuses because one cannot easily wrap one’s mind around the fact that the world is so beautiful yet so painful. But amidst the hurt, the toil, the weariness, the anguish, the groaning of creation waiting for deliverance, we (I) will continue to cling to the hope found in Christ alone. We know that we have come too far to turn back, and even if we hadn’t trudged this distance, we would still have stuck it out with You because our lots are far better with You than in anything or anyone else.

Thank You for being a God of immense justice. If we did not have You, who is over and above all the justice systems of this world, our lot would have been far worse. But we have You, and that fills my heart with joy and pride, in addition to the love I have. Thank You, Thank You. Thank You God!

J.