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We Will Feast and Weep No More


We will feast in the house of ZionWe will sing with our hearts restored
He has done great things, we will say together
We will feast and weep no more


Maggie-May. My sweet little spitfired spirited seven year old. Today our church met at our house for service, and you had been weeping in your room for a few minutes before church was about to start. You very passionately wanted both options of what I had offered (a colouring sheet or a lollipop for during the sermon)... it didn't seem fair to you and you didn't know why I was trying to gently guide you to the lollipop... because I know you, and I know that a lollipop will help you focus better than a colouring sheet will and I know that your heart needed to be with your Father today.

Before we began I went and picked you up and held you and invited you to lead the songs with me from the back of the room (in the kitchen), drying your tears as we walked, because I knew that coming and being a part of worship would restore you, as it restores me. I stood in the kitchen by the island, and I set you, lovingly on the island right next to me so we could be close and I could hold you without holding you while Uncle Cory played guitar and I sung. 

And you sang. You sang with all of your heart and soul. The third song we led together was one of my absolute favourites by Sandra McCracken, We Will Feast in the House of Zion. Maggie-May, you sang that out with gusto... "we will feast and weep no more" and we hugged each-other, and sung cheek to cheek from deep within our souls. And I just had a picture of you and I in the New Heavens and New Earth... we were there together, arms around each other singing about how He has done GREAT things...

You've been having trouble sleeping at night. You've been weeping if I make you stay alone... so lately I've been laying down with you in your bottom bunk that is strung with twinkle lights... we'll lay there for hours and you have such trouble falling asleep... but I want you to feel safe, valued, and important. I think that sometimes you feel like an afterthought in this family of 5... the second of 3 children. Sometimes you feel a little lost... and when you feel.. you feel deeply. I've always loved that about you, my sweet May-May. You feel all emotions to their depths, and I love that about you because I feel like it's a window into how God feels with pure and holy, unadulterated emotion. Oh, I know it is hard, sweet-girl... and I know that you are going to go through a lot in this life... but May-May... when you feel love it is deep and full and wide and high... and when you feel hurt... you feel the bottom of it to the depths.

You, my Maggie-May, are a window for me to see my Father's heart. To see the depths of his love. To see His faithful and fierce love that WON'T let go, as you hold onto your friends as they leave with a death grip as if to show them that you want to keep them for always. That's how He holds onto me when I wander off from Him. He is faithful... and you show me that kind of love Maggie. 

And I know, sweet May, that our emotions are tainted with all sorts of brokenness down here in this world post the fall... and I know that it isn't supposed to be this way.... but even in your sadness I see a glimpse of our Saviour....  where the Bible tells us that "Jesus wept". Our Saviour... our rescuer came and lived among us... He experienced the weight of all of our human emotion... and He feels the weight of sin and sadness to its fullest... We have a Saviour who came because this world we live in IS broken. It is full of sadness that He came to reverse.

And Maggie-May, here's the best part, the Bible says "You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?" Psalm 56:8. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, keeps a record of all of your tossings... and oh how you toss... and he bottles up your tears... and oh how you've wept. His life and death and resurrection were for you, sweet girl. He feels the weight of your sin and sadness.... He has come to make all things new again... 

And in this picture I had of us singing cheek to cheek in the place where our hearts will be FULLY restored, we both sang our hearts out to the Lord remembering the times we had wept... remembering the fires we went through.. the floods... and seeing how we have been redeemed. We have been called by name. And we will sing with fully healed and restored hearts... and oh my Maggie-May... I can't wait for that day.

Come Lord Jesus.

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