December 7

Hosea 6:1-9:17; 3 John 1:1-14; Psalm 126:1-6; Proverbs 29:12-14

We are only a few short days away from finishing our One Year Bible for this year! Way to go and keep it up for next year! So, by now we should all be very familiar with so many of the recurring themes throughout the scriptures. One of the themes we are familiar with is the idea that life is cyclical and that there are all kinds of different seasons we will live through. We see this pattern in our different sections of scripture today.

First, Hosea calls the reader to “return to the Lord” (6:1). Hosea acknowledges that Israel has been in a season of rebellion, and the Lord has “torn us to pieces, but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our words” (6:1). Hosea knows that this season of rebellion can be over. “ As surely as the sun rises, he [God] will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth” (6:3). Israel can leave the barrenness found in rebellion and enter the flourishing and beauty found with the new season and the life giving rains. How refreshing is the Lord’s pursuit and commitment to us!

Next, we encounter John commending Gaius, his dear friend and brother, for his “faithfulness to the truth and how [he] continue[s] to walk in the truth.” John knows that at first many people start out strong in their faith, but after a while, and in different seasons of life, they fall away. This was a common pattern in the early church and this is still a common pattern with believers today. But not so with Gaius, he is faithful in all the seasons and rhythms of life.

Finally, Psalm 126:4-6 captures beautifully the cycles of loss and restoration. “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.” I absolutely love, love, love these verses. What an incredible picture of how God can take brokenness and sorrow and create something wholly beautiful and full of joy. But it takes time. The sorrowful one goes out carrying the seed to sow and then waits. He waits for the harvest season to come. He waits for the seeds to grow and mature. The waiting may be hard, but he doesn’t want to harvest them before the sheaves are mature. And then, in the right season, he gathers the sheaves and returns with arms full of bounty and goodness.

This understanding of seasons and cycles in life and history can encourage us as readers of scripture, both as individuals and as participators in the world at large.

We all experience cycles, patterns, habits, seasons of life. Sometimes it is difficult to even tell we are in a season at all. It’s all we know, all we feel, all we can fathom as our experience. This is especially true in times of loss, sorrow, or the Lord’s discipline. We may think we are going to be this way forever- that this is the new norm for our lives.

But it never is. It never was. And it never will be.

God has always been and always will be in the business of bringing restoration and healing. We see that over and over again in Scripture and we can be confident of that in our lives today. Let us stay faithful to him, as Gaius did, and to his truth. Press into him. Then it will be said of us, “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy” (Ps. 126:3).

- Mary Matthias

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