Thankful: Hidden with New Life
Often, during the Thanksgiving season, we are exhorted to remember to be thankful for God and what he has done. And how could we not give you that same encouragement! We have an amazing God who has done so much for us. In Scripture, worship and thankfulness are often linked when we talk about God. It is through realizing that God is awesome, glorious, and mighty that we give him thanks—and we call that worship.
This month, we will be sharing articles from our elders and members as they reflect on God and what he has done in their heart and life that has led them to greater awe, thankfulness, and worship of God. Today, we have the pleasure of hearing from Jacque Straka.
As I near the end of the year, I am giving abundant thanks for my heavenly Father has wisely drawn me into the hidden place of postpartum healing. As I am writing this, we are 5 days postpartum with our second sweet son, Eli James. An incredible transition happens right after having a baby. Healing has to occur, so there’s a lot of time spent holed up at home. You may have experienced it in the midst of your own physical ailments—maybe post-surgery, a terrible flu, broken bones, throbbing migraines. Not much else can happen with your time when you can’t move and don’t desire to.
On any other day, I am running around with 2-year-old Landin, trying to make dinner in time to eat it before the bedtime routine begins, or up in the morning trying not to get annoyed that I have once again burned the tortillas. But the Lord knows our frame and remembers we are dust and takes great joy in interrupting the hubbub of life to knock us into bed for a “required retreat.”
For me, much of this time has been spent in thought while drinking up encouragement from the Bible, sermons, podcasts, music—all the sweet mind candy I’ve been longing to absorb! Somehow, in these days after having a baby and being faced with so many needs all at once, God has hidden me away in himself. I have had no desire to hear from the world or from myself. I am desperate for pure truth and encouragement and don’t dabble long in setting my mind on the things of the earth—they are clearly inadequate. God has graciously allowed me to hear and absorb every utterance of the Spirit he brings to my mind through his word. As I am up throughout the night, I sing “My soul finds rest in God alone.” Breastfeeding seems like it changes its rules every time I go to nurse, and as I’m about to burst in frustration or as I turn to Google for yet another tip or new gear, a Seeds Family Worship song rings in my mind as the Spirit reminds me of Colossians 3:2—
Set your minds on things that are above...Not on things that are on earth.
Set your minds on things that are above...Not on things that are on earth.
(a grand crescendo swells and bursts)
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
And I am reminded that my hope is not in advice or techniques or my coordination. Every good and perfect gift is from the Lord, and him alone. I cannot do anything apart from Christ.
As you are reading this, I am past the physical, hidden place of postpartum transition, but the Lord remains my ever-present help. I relish how the Spirit has taught me to draw near where all I see is him. When I am fighting well, I run to that place of rest each day, throughout the day, as I face the brokenness of my own sin and those around me. I am grateful for times and places that afford us a special retreat into the Lord’s presence, and life-changing seasons that solidify Biblical truths.
Thank you, Father, for the hiding places you’ve designed in this life that remind me that at any time I can find a very secure hiding place in Christ!
“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.” (Psalm 27:4-5)
For your further pursuit of joy, I encourage you to read Psalm 27:4–5; Psalm 32:7; Psalm 103:14; Colossians 3:2; and James 1:17.