Locusts, Jefferson, and Me—Living with a Promise

Our Front Porch - Christian Heritage Fellowship

By Stephen A. Flick - Posted at Christian Heritage Fellowship:

One of the favorite places Beth and I used to sit and share in each other’s lives was the swing on our front porch. Handcrafted by Amish Dutch in western Pennsylvania years ago, it was brought to our home by Mom Flick when she came to live with us in Mississippi following her diagnosis of terminal liver cancer in 1998. But since this past summer, that porch swing which has been a silent observer of so much of our family’s history is now—for the most part—unoccupied, no longer witness to our hopes, dreams, and disappointments. While the patterns of life have enormously changed over the last three months, there is one thing that has not changed; I am still living with a promise!

The Promise of God

Not long after our accident that claimed the life of my precious wife, Beth, I selected a screen saver on my computer that allowed me to insert a portion of Scripture. The text I selected was taken from Joel 2:25a, which reads,

“And I will restore to you the years that the locusts hath eaten…”

For years, this brief passage cradled my wife’s convictions concerning our lives and the future she believed the Lord was extending to us. Like so many other couples, she remembered the pain we had experienced in life’s journey, and one of the means she used to offer me comfort and hope was to quote Joel 2:25a. As a loving godly spouse, she directly or indirectly evoked this promise from time to time, comforting me with the fact that the Lord’s intent toward us was for good and not for evil, and that in God’s timing faithfulness would receive its reward.

Read more here.