Chotard Doll

Dear Companions on the way,

I love the opening chapter of Job we read today!

First, that vivid picture of Satan, “going to and fro on the earth, and…walking up and down on it.” It reminds me of the Prayer Book Compline service, which reads:

“Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith.” —I Peter 5:8-9a; BCP p 132

I know he is there, working to get my attention!

And then Satan accuses God: You don’t play fair, you bless Job with all such good things!

That’s such an apt description of God’s presence in our lives.

And of course, the list of catastrophic losses for Job puts any problems I have in perfect perspective; God has blessed me mightily too, in more ways than I can count, even when I try to name them all.

But I also pray that when the time of trial comes, I will be like Job, and able to be grateful and aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide and support.

Or, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

And when the cup you give is filled to brimming
With bitter suffering, hard to understand,
We take it faithfully, and without trembling,
Out of so good and so beloved a hand. —Hymn 696

So may it be.

Faithfully,

—Chotard