Each year, for some reason, we buy into the belief that next year will be different. As December concludes, we have high hopes that a change in the calendar will end the struggles and hardships that we are facing. However, as the new year dawns, it usually doesn’t take long for such happy hopes to be dashed to pieces by the less-than-romantic reality before us.

For my family, the first blow came in February with the unexpected loss of my brother-in-law. One minute he was completing his normal duties at work, the next minute he was unexplainably unconscious on the floor, leaving behind my sister and two young children. Then, in July, my granny passed away. It wasn’t as unexpected, but the loss still hurts. It has been a recurring theme in my life this past year: Death deals his blows while I cower in the corner longing for Resurrection Day.

Hope When Love Hurts

God has ingrained in us a desire for authentic and meaningful relationships. It’s therefore no surprise that we find great joy in living life deeply with those in our family, church, and community. In these relationships we enjoy lots of laughs, make lots of memories, and always have a story to tell. No doubt, the deeper we love, the more we enjoy other people. But, there’s also a greater potential for pain. Losing someone we love dearly is heartbreaking. Traversing such painful times can often leave us desperately searching for hope and strength to sustain us.

As believers, we know our hope is always in the Lord, yet it’s sometimes difficult to feel it during a season of hardship. It’s often a battle to let the propositional truths we know to be true sink down into the depths of our heart and stir our affections. It’s a continual fight to soak in the hope-filled truths of our majestic God, who alone encourages and sustains us, yet Isaiah 40 is an encouraging chapter to remind us of the greatness of God.

The Majesty of God

Isaiah 40 clearly demonstrates God’s majesty. For example, it teaches us that God holds the waters of this world in the hollow of his hand (v. 12). Imagine all the waters of every ocean, river, stream, and pond being held in God’s hand! We’re told, too, that he names each star. We can’t even count the stars, but God knows them all by name. And, because he is great in power, not a single star goes missing (vv. 25–26).

If God so cares for the stars, how will he not much more care for his people.

In verse 27, God’s people ask two questions of him that most of us can relate to: Is my way hidden from God (does God see me)? Has my way been disregarded by God (has he abandoned me)? In the midst of hardship, we, too, might find ourselves asking these things of God. I am thankful for how these questions are answered in verses 28–31.

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