Beulah

No longer will they call you Deserted,
or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah,
and your land Beulah;
for the Lord will take delight in you,
and your land will be married
-Isaiah 62:4

Some time ago, not long after I had decided to pledge my life to my God, I received this as a promise. That time, I had been in a dark pit, struggling to climb out. My heart was broken and I was unable to hold on to any strength to pull me out of the darkness. At that time, I thought a broken heart and a crushed spirit was of no use, of no worth, to anyone. All I could do was sit in that deep dark pit and look up to the light high high up. Just sit there and hope the little hope my hole-ridden heart could hold. Just sit there, and hope my God would take care of my poor little company. Because its leader, if she could be called that given her state at that time, had no strength to continue loving what she had started. How could she possibly love when all she had was a broken hole-ridden heart that believed love was nothing but a lie? But she knew she had to believe. She had to learn to believe in the truth and existence of love again, because so many young dreamers looked to her to set the tone of the company. So many young hearts were going to feel as lost as she did if she didn't pull herself together soon. But at that time, all she could do was murmur an apology and grieve the death of her dreams. Oh, the company was still there. It just wasn't her dream anymore. Her heart had become incapable of holding a dream now. And all she could do was pray that the God who put the dream in her in the first place would have pity on the dreamers who looked to her. And save them as she was no longer, and maybe never have been, able to save them.

And this was what He said. This was the promise that resonated in her hard, broken excuse of a heart in that deep dark pit she had struggled so long to climb out of.

And this year has seen the fulfillment of that promise. I think the fulfillment is still continuing. I just hadn't noticed it until one of the organizations I had been trying to forge an alliance with said this in his email:

"... form an NDA , just for formality and that we can marry each other (our companies hehehe) so both of us can be rest assured that our secrets are safe :D"

Non-disclosure Agreements are normal in the world I move in. The way he said it, though, triggered the memory of the promise. And I suddenly realized theirs wasn't the only organization we had been forging an alliance with this year. There was another one with a different focus that we made an agreement with, too, earlier this year. ("Polygamy!" Cries my sister).

Thank You, my God, for the promise and its fulfillment. May I never forget that You are truly a faithful God. My friends, rejoice on this day with me. Rejoice that we have a God who fulfills promises, and remembers even though we are fickle and forgetful. My very name, derived from Elizabeth, speaks of His promise. I had pancakes and bacon to celebrate. Friends, celebrate with me and remember.