We stop at Presque Isle and eat Jean Kays pasties on our way up north still to this day. This fountain disappeared a couple years ago now, sad. But this was always a great stop, has a merry go round and they'd spin and spin...before eating. (-: We'd never really do/did any of the hiking/scenic stuff here, just kids being kids, having some treats and enjoying the park during a long trip.
Crazy how such pics and memories can somtimes be both joy filled and heartbreaking at the same time.
But really though...it's not so crazy is it?
As we know, our good and gracious God, our loving Heavenly Father "...will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow." from Jeremiah 31:13. The book of Jeremiah can be quite a read (I am not a biblical scholar, nowhere near so I can't give overarching themes or anything, just my little insights), we are just such repetitive fallen, broken sinners aren't we and it's all spread out in the open through God's word shared by the prophet Jeremiah. But then chapter 31 comes up (with a nice lead in from chapter 30), for my third year in a row of "read through the bible," and this year my ears heard Jeremiah, despite "us," despite our brokenness, pains and sorrows..."the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you." 31:3. Stopped me in my tracks heard it, this week...this week...the week of remembering a child who died an earthly death sooner than his mom ever wanted and another who is suffering and absent from me two years now and my beloved intact family of five children, poof, vanished unexpectedly in a suprise blink of an eye one day in May six years ago already. My ears were to hear today of Rachel's weeping for her children (31:15) and the Lord's comfort, "Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work...there is hope for your future, declares the Lord..." Surely we can see, from weeping shall come hope. Rachel died back in Genesis, giving birth to her son that Jacob called Benjamin. Jeremiah prophesied about her weeping for her children in his time again while Jerusalem was being overturned and Matthew again referenced her weeping as baby boys were being slaughtered by Herod. We are broken, throughout all time, and yet, our God wipes away our tears and has sent his beloved Son to redeem us and give us the promise of our eternal salvation through Christ! What greater joy is that!
We have been given this earthly life to live through the grace of God. It will have hardships and pains, some beyond your human comprehension and understanding maybe (I've sure been beyond my human understanding at times)...but so much greater than that is the peace that passes all understanding, joy through sorrows, hope after weeping that comes in being a Christ follower.
Praise God from whom all Blessings Flow!
Presque Isle Park
Peter White Drive,
Marquette, MI 49855
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