Envy is a weird emotion. Sometimes we can envy the most bizarre people can’t we? Whose life do you feel looks ‘greener’ than yours right now? Perhaps you sometimes envy those who don’t have small children because it means they can leave the house in less than an hour and a half (without nappy bags, toys, spare clothes, rugs, shoes, bibs, cutlery, kitchen sinks etc) Or maybe you envy those WITH children because your life seems mighty quiet… Perhaps you long for healing for someone you love and feel unaccountably angry when you see a young woman jogging round the park… maybe you find it hard to see someone buying a new bathroom, when you can’t afford to buy Smart Price cereal…

Maybe you envy someone their music studio, career break, marriage, horse, singing voice, breast size, ability to play the flugel horn, car, torso, holiday in Florida, ability to understand teenagers, golf handicap, gifting, job, girlfriend, self-closing cupboards, wallpaper, cookery book collection, lipgloss colour…. the list is endless!

A lovely friend of ours from our last church sent us some beautiful verses yesterday to encourage us as a family as we wait for Mum’s operation on the 19th November. (Thank you Ronnie. Of all people, you guys really know this journey.)

The Amplified version of Isaiah 30:18 says this:

“And therefore the Lord (earnestly) waits (expecting, looking, and longing to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who (earnestly) wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him (for his victory, His favour, His love, His peace, His joy and His matchless, unbroken companionship)”

Did you notice the phrase ‘to be envied’ in there…? Subtle isn’t it, but definitely there.

You and I are ‘to be envied’ if we wait for God, because we WILL receive His victory and favour. No question.
God is Lord of the Breakthrough as well as Lord of the Breakdown. He is Sovereign in all things.
Knowing that, and having that stupid peace that makes no sense makes us all the more enviable.

My grass IS greener. I am on the Lord’s grass. And it is wonderfully, verdantly, emerald.