Desolate Woman
By Janay Garrick
Student, MA in Cross-Cultural Studies
Children at Risk emphasis
When God acts, who can reverse it?
And does God not often act in ways
that reverse human logic and thought?
“Sing, O barren woman
you who never bore a child
burst into song, shout for joy
you who never were in labor
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,”
says the Lord.
Isaiah 54:1
The desolate woman is Israel, is me, is every person waiting on a promise that is yet to be fulfilled. The desolate woman waits in hope. God commands her to sing. She does not let go of her Lord, or her faith, no matter how hopeless the situation may look or feel. She insists on singing. She refuses to stop laughing.
And in her song and in her laughter, she gives birth to the unseen, to the things in the spiritual realm that cannot be measured in this lifetime.
Hope gives birth to more hope.
Trusting in the unseen gives birth to more trust.
More love, more patience,
more of the Spirit of Life
gets born into
the heart of the desolate woman,
born into the heart of you and me.
Thus, we are no longer desolate,
but very much alive and thriving.