Bible Passage: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (Jeremiah 29:5-7 NIV)
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 29:1-23
Sometimes, some things don’t make sense.
Okay, a lot of times, many things don’t make sense.
God’s message to the exiles in Jeremiah 29 falls squarely into that category. Jeremiah’s words would have been a surprise, and not the good kind.
Instead of a prophet coming to preach good news of a fast return from exile or to boost their resilience and resistance, God sends Jeremiah with the message to buckle in; the ride is going to be long.
But this message is not one of begrudging endurance; it is one that calls them to build, plant, marry, and pray for the prosperity of the nation that has taken them away from their home.
It is a deeply counterintuitive and counter-cultural message. God’s desire for them is to live fully in their present reality rather than to half live in an expectant hope of some future life.
Men are often future-oriented. We look forward to what may be with an expectancy that allows us to endure the present.
When I get the promotion; when the kids are older; when things settle down; when I’m more disciplined and mature…
This leaves us only half present in our own lives, ignoring the opportunities and sometimes the people that grace our present days.
When we only lament what is and anticipate what will be, we tolerate our jobs but don’t work as for the Lord. We attend church but do not serve. We know names and faces but not lives.
It is here that Jeremiah’s words must push us.
Forcing us to value our present, Jeremiah reminds us that fullness of life does not wait for a future moment, event, or discovery. Fullness, and the hope that it fosters, is rooted in being planted in our present.
Because hope is not just about the future, it is about faithful living in the present. We live our hope now not by disengaging but by investing in the moments God has given us every day.
Prayer: God, help me to see what is right in front of me that You have given me to be a part of. While I wait for the fullness of Your Kingdom, please give me the strength to live my today. Amen.
Reflection: Where are you refusing to plant and blossom because you are still waiting for something more? How might you look at things differently and respond differently?
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