Never Out Of His Care!

Hibernaculum?!  What a word.  I like to read the "word of the day" every so often on the Merriam-Webster web site.  I read this one this morning.  It is defined as follows:  a shelter occupied during the winter by a dormant animal.

When I read the definition, the wheels in my mind began to turn.  We ALL have times of "winter" or seemingly dormant times in our lives. Dormant meaning, not being in a state of use, activity, or employment.  Whether you are feeling useless, inactive (spiritually or physically) or even unemployed...these times can bring you down and affect everything that you do if you are not careful. 

Job 14:7-9 (The Message Translation) says, "For a tree there is always hope. Chop it down and it still has a chance - its roots can put out fresh sprouts.  Even if its roots are old and gnarled, its stump long dormant,  At the first whiff of water it comes to life, buds and grows like a sapling."  I know that in context this verse is about Job talking how that life is better for tree than it is for being.  But, bear with me in my train of thought for a moment...Even if we are going through a "dormant" time in our lives, there IS hope!  In Jeremiah 17:7-8 it says, "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."  If we focus on HIM...if we put our trust and hope in HIM...our spiritual tree, along with it's spiritual roots will seek out the living water He offers.  The water that will fill us to the point that we will never spiritually thirst again!  Just like the tree mention in Jeremiah 17, when the heat and drought...those dormant times...come we can be assured that we will flourish and yield fruit if we trust and hope in HIM!

So instead of isolating yourself in your hibernaculum, focus on Him during those times.  Trust and hope in Him. I like what Jeremiah 29:11 (The Message Translation) says, "I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for". In closing, I want to leave you with the words to an old hymn:  "And He knows where I am every hour of every day.  He knows each thought I think, He knows each word that I might say.  And although there’ve been times I’ve been out of His will.  I’ve never been out of His care"