enough

I have this sweet tooth.  It is pretty demanding of me. “Must have treat now!” (hear that quote in the voice of cookie monster)  But, you probably already knew that, based on how often I post recipes involving sugar and chocolate.

At any rate, I’ve recently been listening to the new Sara Groves album, “Floodplain” and on it there is a song that has grown to be my favorite.  In the song, “Enough” Sara refers to “honey in the rock.” Yesterday I realized I wanted to know what she was talking about.  The lyrics she’s written are so necessary for me right now.

First, here are the words to the song that I have come to love:

Late nights, long hours
Questions are drawn like a thin red line
No comfort left over
No safe harbor in sight

Really we don’t need much
Just strength to believe
There’s honey in the rock,
There’s more than we see
In these patches of joy
These stretches of sorrow
There’s enough for today
There will be enough tomorrow

I decided to look in Scripture, because I felt like she was probably referring to something there, in God’s Word.  Initially I found a lot of honey references to the Promised Land  flowing with milk and honey.  And, the Psalms reference to the law of the Lord being sweet as honey.  But, then I found something else.

23 And the Lord commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. I will be with you.”

Following that, in chapter 32, Moses sang this song as a reminder to the people of Israel.  A song of hope and salvation and God’s faithful provision.  (This is just a part of Moses’ song, from v 10-13)  And in the middle of this prayer-song, I found it:

“He found him in a desert land,
    and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
    he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
    that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
    bearing them on its pinions,
12 the Lord alone guided him,
    no foreign god was with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the land,
    and he ate the produce of the field,
and he suckled him with honey out of the rock,
    and oil out of the flinty rock.

The Israelites were so forgetful and doubtful.  Often I’m just as doubt-filled and needy as them.  They knew they were the apple of His eye.  They knew He had sustained them in the dessert with manna each day.  “He suckled them with honey out of the rock,”  And still they needed a song to remind them of His love and care and His unchanging faithfulness.

I find myself standing on the edge of a journey.  It isn’t new territory.  I’ve been here before.  And yet, I’m staring out at this stretch of road ahead it looks awfully dark and shadowy- gloomy and sad, maybe even treacherous.  I don’t feel a bit entitled or demanding, as I sometimes imagine the Israelites to have been.  I’m not terribly courageous or strong like Joshua when I whisper, “Are you out there Lord?  Because today’s the day. I need to know you’re going to be there…”

As I tiptoe out into the valley today, the words from the Scripture above, and from the song are encouraging my heart.  He has cared for me from the very beginning as the apple of His eye.  His provision has been more than sufficient in the past and it will be again.  Daily, I can look forward to the sweet comfort of His presence and the fellowship of His suffering.

His promises are firm.  His Word is sure. He is enough.