grief

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So what made him cry?

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Ren and I are part of an apprenticeship class studying Nehemiah. An assignment we have each week is to identify one thing that stands out to us from the study of the scripture.  

What I noticed immediately was Nehemiah asks some men who had just arrived from Judah how things were going in Jerusalem for the Jews who had returned there from captivity. The news wasn't good.  The walls of Jerusalem had been torn down and the gates destroyed by fire.  The people are in great trouble and disgrace. It's in shambles. 

Then verse 4 says

4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted,
and prayed to the God of heaven.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+1&version=NLT>

 

That thought caused me to ponder.  Why was his grief so strong? what made him cry?

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Today was not the day I thought I wanted!

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For a few weeks now, Rennie and I had been making plans to head to Texas this Thanksgiving weekend to be with our parents. It was NOT going to be easy, we really needed to work, but our hearts longed for ‘home’- the first home we grew up in with the parents who loved us to adulthood and beyond.

But that was not to be- and for several days I have physically grieved what couldn’t be and struggled to see what was. Isn’t that how it is sometimes? We get consumed by what we don’t have and we forget to see what is right in front of us. …