Jeremiah 31:8 – A Cared For Caravan

8
Behold, I will bring them from the north country,
And gather them from the ends of the earth,
Among them the blind and the lame,
The woman with child
And the one who labors with child, together;
A great throng shall return there. Jeremiah 31:8, New King James Version

I just started watching the Amazon series Away hypothesizing about a human mission to Mars. Expecting an ordeal of years to get there and back, the process of winnowing out is rigorous. Key to the plot, it separates man and wife. Both are aspiring astronauts with sterling credentials and sharpened skills, but only one can represent humanity in braving this frontier. With so much at stake, any possible weakness, including a latent, almost hypothetical disability, simply cannot be tolerated.

How different is the Lord's watchcare, and something like bravado, in Jeremiah 31:8? Behold, He trumpets. World, make sure you are watching, because, again, MY ways are different. My calling is counterintuitive. Fittingly, the Master of all optics and motivation chooses representatives of His ventures differently than men or mathematicians would. If we want to picture His establishing something new, even on a foundation which reminds us the risks because the old has failed before, we look to those He calls to the front in Jeremiah 31:8.

They aren't the jock valedictorians we would expect to shoot into space, the best of the brightest who have already met every challenge they have encountered. God identifies Himself and His surety of the future with the blind and the lame, those whom men, speak it or not, deem defective and high-maintenance. Watch this, God focuses even jaded man's attention, by My guidance, even those who can't see the Promised Land will be its pioneers. Even the lame who can't resurrect its walls will be its vanguard. These are not the people God sneaks in as also-rans. They are in His headlines, the forefront of His work.

That work is so comprehensive, so confident, that it plants His Presence in the present and the future at once. The degree of difficulty stretches and sometimes stupefies us. Even the camp for disabilities which I attended as a child and loved, specified only so many "lame" children per cabin. They, I readily admit as one of them, required extra care on the counselors' part. Yet God Who proclaims Jeremiah 31:8 is not guarded. He is sure of His ability to be the eyes of the blind, the race for the lame, to keep them from falling into present perils, AND to plan for the future of His people.

His cared for caravan includes the very pregnant, even those actually in labor. This is not an inconvenience to Him, an interference with His global realignment. He can both manage the present, show His strength through people's current weakness, and sow what He is doing next – with all of the upheavals and uncertainties, all of the labor pains that involves. Bring the pregnant, He joyously summons.

He will, after all, mark the faith, not the folly, of Moses' parents who brought forth a boy into slavery, hid him, and nurtured him with a sense of purpose. God will, after all, in the ultimate strength-through-weakness demonstration, personify His character, Personalize theology, by coming into the world courtesy of someone faithful, traveling, and pregnant. We wouldn't be mentioning much if we supposed He brings up the company in Jeremiah 31:8 more with relish than reservations.

His own, then, a few potential complications differently by faith. They sense, as a friend of mine did in the very earliest stages of our bond, an honor in helping to address particulars as we experience new settings. My friend Rick didn't even know what was involved in compensating for my "lameness" on a men's retreat. Good sense, and his banker's background, might have promoted the wisdom of asking for a list of needs first, but he didn't. God's Jeremiah 31:8 heart in his doubled down rather than being daunted by the prospect of demonstration. If God through His can leave those with "special needs" on an adventure, no wonder the throng can follow excitedly behind. All their excuses have been demolished.

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