The Locusts Have Not Won

 

The threshing floors

   shall be full of grain.

The vats shall overflow

   with wine and oil.

I will restore to you

the years that the 

swarming locust has eaten.

          Joel 2. 24-25

A poet friend mentioned to me

that after many hard years of

        physical suffering and

        blank pages,

she suddenly realized 

that lost fruitless time

   was not wasted after all.

God restored in ways

    she could not have imagined.

Faithfulness is never squandered,

even when it feels like

 circumstances nibble us to death.

God forms something abundant 

            through our hardships.

The locusts have not won at all.

God redeems backwards and

   forwards, right below our feet

and way beyond what we can see.

O LORD,

As the locusts are swarming

             all around us,

and all our work

  seems to be to no avail,

please help us 

   to cling to You,

knowing that You are working,

even in this,

          even through this.

Bring Your hope to us.

We see the affliction of locusts

    that seems endless.

But You see Your glory

   covering us.

Help us to take refuge in You

   to go forth strengthened.