Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. I will rebuild. You will again be happy and dance merrily with your tambourines. Again you will plant your vineyards on the mountains of Samaria and eat from your own gardens there. Jeremiah 31:3-5

The themes of God’s story for mankind involve creation, the Fall, redemption, and restoration. Loss and heartache do not have the final word. All of us have settled in the wilderness of despair for a time though ~ believing that the desert was our destiny. God calls us to higher things, to the fight for joy, to the fight for faith in order to realize redemption in all the places the locusts have eaten.

I’ve seen him redeem major pieces of my story. When I was four, I had a red pair of play-eye glasses. I would put them on and declare that I could read any book. I couldn’t read a thing! I would tell stories by the hour, pretending that the glasses provided the magic. Since I was the child of traditional and reserved parents, this was thought to be a little too radical. I remember one of them teasing me about the red glasses, and I interpreted it as rejection. I threw the glasses away and pulled in the reigns to my free spirit. I morphed into someone more mainstream. I was my own policeman, squashing the impulses of the best parts of me. This ritual killing of myself almost destroyed me. Daughters of Promise was birthed in my own re-birth.

I had a dream a few years ago that has stayed with me. I was taking a walk by myself and left the main road to enjoy going wherever I wanted. Just beyond a stone wall was a large open field.  All of a sudden, there was an open grave. Inside were the full remains of a dead man.  I gasped and asked Jesus, “Who is this?”  He said, “My child.” I said, “It’s too late for him, isn’t it.”  He said, “Wait, what am I teaching you? What are you to do when you enter a place full of dead men’s bones?”  I said, “Speak the Gospel to the bones and let You breathe over them.” “Right,” He said. Daughters of Promise is the way God carved out for me to speak to the bones, to any who may be technically alive but still feel dead inside.

What are your red glasses? Where have you traded your gifting and authentic self for some re-fashioned version? God waits to show you the child He created. He waits to reveal, validate, and empower you to be HIS daughter first, to show you who you really are. Believe it. Stand up tall, be confident, and start walking in the gift God ordained to give you from before the foundation of the world.