Glimmers of hope with Matthew
by Libby Jewson
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That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him’ (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Read 1 Corinthians 2:6–10
These devotions reflect on the week’s readings through a narrative retelling. As the writer reflected, meditated and prayed over the texts, she says a story started to emerge. This is an imagined dialogue formed between Matthew and a Bethlehem mother affected by Herod’s massacre. The devotions follow this mother’s reflections across the week, inviting us to consider God’s compassion, faithfulness and hope.
Matthew, I have thought about these events over the years. The cruel death of our little boy and the deaths of the other little boys. The life of Jesus and all the things he said and did. How his message was new, different and overwhelming. And then after his death and resurrection, when everything seemed completely futile and hopeless. Those who knew Jesus well gathered for the ancient tradition of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit hovered through them and continues to hover now through humanity.
I think about how I understand God and Jesus and the hovering, seeping Spirit those people talked about. My mind continually returns to the verses from Isaiah: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him’ (Isaiah 64:4).
I think about how my life has changed, my way of knowing is something that I couldn’t even describe or imagine before that day and yet here I am, trying to explain something that cannot be explained, something that has no sound, something that has no picture, but at the same time is beauty in the every day, in nature, in words and in music that fills me up – it is as if the spirit claws into my being and life goes on – even when it is too hard, when I can’t imagine another day, when despair seems to overturn hope.
I know that in these vulnerable times, God’s Spirit of love and hope is with me, consoling and encouraging. I hear the Spirit’s words through those I love, through sharing and listening to each other’s stories, through sharing with those other families. There God’s love and light shine as a beacon of hope.
I long for the day when the mystery of life and faith is somehow revealed. Until then, I am content to listen, to love and to rest, knowing that in the depths of my sorrow is where I found the Spirit of love.
Thank you again, Matthew, for taking the time to talk and to listen, and not to judge me.
Lord of love, and faith and hope, you come to me in my darkness, brokenness and loneliness. Help me show your love to those I know and love – that’s where your light shines. Amen.
Libby is recently retired and lives alongside the Moorabool Valley, in Central West Victoria. She loves walking, hiking, exploring, cycling on her beautiful bike ‘Ruby’, gardening, music, appreciating beauty, watching good movies and TV series, reading, sharing meals with friends and family and enjoys tending her orchard of heritage quinces. Libby is an active member of Living Faith Lutheran Church Geelong and spends time volunteering with the Melanie Jewson Foundation with her husband, Gary, and their other two adult children, André and Ashlee. Together, they run a small business called Quincey Fizz. Libby is very thankful to have had the opportunity to study in the Graduate Diploma in Divinity program at Australian Lutheran College this year.
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