The Window In Your Heart

But the Babylonian army chased King Zedekiah and caught him in the plains of Jericho. All of his army was scattered from him. So the Babylonians captured Zedekiah and took him to the king of Babylon at the town of Riblah in the land of Hamath. There he passed sentence on Zedekiah. At Riblah the king of Babylon killed Zedekiah's sons as he watched. The king also killed all the officers of Judah. Then he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and put bronze chains on him, and took him to Babylon. And the king kept Zedekiah in prison there until the day he died (Jeremiah 52: 8-11).

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The Window In Your Heart

READ Jeremiah 52

SITUATION Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians after a two year siege. The Babylonians blinded King Zedekiah, looted the Temple, and destroyed the city. Many Israelites were exiled to Babylon. God completely fulfilled Jeremiah's prophecy.

OBSERVATION True to his word, God punished unrepentant Israel through conquest by Babylon.

INSPIRATION There is a window in your heart through which you can see God. Once upon a time that window was clear. Your view of God was crisp. You could see God as vividly as you could see a gentle valley or hillside. The glass was clean, the pane unbroken.

You knew God. You know what he wanted you to do. No surprises. Nothing unexpected. You knew that God has a will, and you continually discovered what it was.

Then, suddenly, the window cracked. A pebble broke the window. A pebble of pain.

Perhaps the stone struck when you were a child and a parent left home--forever. Maybe the rock hit in adolescence when you heart was broken. Maybe you made it into adulthood before the window cracked. but then the pebble came...

Whatever the pebble's form, the result was the same--a shattered window. The pebble missiled into the pane and shattered it. The crash echoed down the halls of you heart. Cracks shot out from the point of impact, creating a spider web of fragmented pieces.

And suddenly God was not so easy to see. The view that had been so crisp had changed. You turned to see God, and his figure was distorted. It was hard to see him through the pain. It was hard to see him through the fragments of hurt.

You were puzzled, God wouldn't allow something like this to happen, would he? Tragedy and travesty weren't on the agenda of the One you had seen, were they? Had you been fooled? Had you been blind?

The moment the pebble struck, the glass became a reference point for you. From then on, there was life before the pain and life after the pain. Before your pain, the view was clear. God seemed so near. After the pain, well, he was harder to see. He seemed a bit distant...harder to perceive. Your pain distorted the view--not eclipsed it, but distorted it.

When you can't see him, trust him. The figure you see is not a ghost. The voice you hear is not the wind.

Jesus is closer than you've you ever dreamed. (From In the Eye of the Storm by Max Lucado)

APPLICATION Is someone in you family anxious? In a panic? Help that person to face the chaos, to work through the pain with God's help. To face the problems peacefully.

EXPLORATION Punishment---Genesis 3:14-19; 9:11-15, Exodus 32:34; Psalm 38:2-4 Isaiah 13:11; Jeremiah 52.

The Devotional Bible - Experiencing the Heart of Jesus; Max Lucado General Editor, New Century Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers