BROKEN – AND, RESCUED
I am currently being broken – my family is being broken. I alluded to the “start” of our struggles in my last post last Lent. And yet I feel God is close – so incredibly close.
Our struggles have no foreseeable end – like the struggles of many now – so, the other day I snatched my dad away to Yosemite National Park. He didn’t want to go – convinced he couldn’t/shouldn’t go. The only “option” I gave him was to go for a few hours, instead of overnight. He thanked me later.
On the long drive through the majestic mountains, beautifully covered in snow, and illuminated with gentle sun, Dad and I started talking about where God was in the midst of our pains. It prompted me to share the reminder offered in today’s Psalm: “God is close to the brokenhearted.” He had an adverse reaction – and explained. He heard that line and the accompanying one, “God rescues the just,” but he was not being spared of pain despite his petitions. He questioned its reliability. For the first time, Dad confessed to me his lack of faith. In Dad’s sharing, I heard Jesus’s own words, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Curious about the “rescue,” I looked it up. I learned, one translation of the Hebrew word used, “natsal,” is “snatch away.”
Could God’s way of healing/rescuing/delivering me through this breaking be snatching me away? Just as I was snatching Dad away – healing by just being close? The few hours Dad opened for this trip was mutually healing. I needed it too. For me, I have been comforted in God’s closeness – God’s been in the passenger seat accompanying me through it all, suffering with me, as Dad was on our trip.
May God continue to bless the limited spaces and ways we open for God to be close to us during our pains. May God actively rescue us there.
Thank you for the accompaniment and community of prayers. My prayers are with you too.
Vivian Valencia