In Her Sandals

In Her Sandals…I don’t know about you, but so often I read the Bible, and I forget the people I’m reading about actually existed. They had feelings and emotions. They endured great hardship and troubles and temptations, and they were human. Strapping on their sandals and walking in their sandals are ways that I study the Bible, and it brings the Word to life for me. Some are called to study end times. Some are called to teach life application. I guess I’m called to make the people in the Word, especially women, become real, so we can better relate and learn. Here is the next woman whose sandals I reluctantly strap on.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have had a really good life. It’s almost like a fairytale. I am married to a man who loves his God and serves his God with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his strength, and because of his great love, God has richly poured out his favor on us. Life is so good. I have seven sons and three daughters. They are almost grown. You know they are never really grown. They are still and will always be my babies. What blesses my heart the most is how well they get along. They get together at least once a month celebrating someone’s birthday, and there is always gales of laughter in the air when they are together, telling stories, and pulling pranks. They are all so different. I’m amazed that the same two parents can produce ten kids so unique and precious. My heart is so full. Life is good. I am Job’s wife.

I never really realized just how blessed I was until my world imploded, and everything was gone.  Bad news after bad news pounded us. Everything that I had held as protected was gone. Everything we had invested in was destroyed or taken from us. There’s no way to plan for something like this. There’s no way we could have seen any of this coming. People robbing us blind. A freak lightning storm killing our animals. A whirlwind or tornado hit the home where all of our children were celebrating. OH MY WORD! All of my babies! I remember receiving the word from the servant. I felt like I had been punched in the gut.  I couldn’t catch my breath. I think I must have screamed, but I didn’t recognize my own voice. I remember grabbing my coat and starting to run out the door, but my servants and friends stopped me. They wouldn’t let me go see my babies. My babies. They couldn’t all possibly be dead…not all of them. OH MY WORD! I become sick, violently ill. People are talking to me. I see their lips moving, and I can’t process what they are saying. I begin sobbing. I can’t help it. I can’t control it. My babies’ sweet faces, I’ll never see. The music of laughter is gone.

I sit in my room in the dark by myself holding myself and just rocking back and forth. There’s no comfort to be found. We have to have a service. We have to bury them. OH MY WORD! How can I endure ten boxes? Ten altars? How can we afford this? How can I endure this? I feel like I’m drowning. I can’t breathe. Friends come to sit with me. I don’t speak. I know my eyes are glazed over. They try to get me to eat, but I know that nothing will stay in me. Just 24 hours ago life was so incredibly different, so incredibly different.

Something dawns on me. I need to see Job. I get up quickly and move to find him. My actions cause people to jump, but I don’t care. I run calling for him and find him. His grief compounds mine. He has torn his clothes and shaved his head, and he’s in a heap on the ground. I hear him. I hear him repeating something over and over. He’s worshipping God. I think he’s preparing to meet his maker because he says he came into this world with nothing and will leave with nothing. We have nothing!

Through these things Job clings to God. I’m just not there yet. I don’t feel anything. They say I’m in shock. I don’t know what happened much next. I know I survived, but that’s all I know.

No one ever wants to walk in the sandals of this woman. No one ever wants this to happen to them. No one. There are two more blogs to come on this woman, Job’s wife. Don’t judge her until you’ve walked in her sandals.