Grasshoppers

Joel 2:25-27, "25 'I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten-- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm--my great army that I sent among you.  26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.  27 Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed." 

I turned 50 this year. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do with that. If the Lord would be so kind as to tell me if its the middle of my life I could have a crisis and buy a sports car or an infra-red sauna. My life insurance goes until I'm 100 so perhaps that's the surest thing to base it on right now. 

Every 50 years in the Bible is a Year of Jubilee. It's when God does His own financial leveling/wealth redistribution and restores property to its divinely assigned owners. He does it fairly, based on the years of crops left on a field. He does it to show his mercy and to remind us that whatever playing field we are on, we need to treat each other with respect and dignity. My first 50 might be as a servant; the last might be as the owner of the house. Serve well. Treat well. 

It's hard to figure out how that all works today, given the fact that there are no 12 recognizable tribes occupying specific territories in the land of Israel and...I'm not Jewish. But I'm claiming my Year of Jubilee with the Lord anyway. 

There has been something in my spirit even prior to turning 50 that has prompted me to pray and ask for that which has been stolen by the enemy, taken through life in general, or in my sinful state, willfully given over for a bowl of red stew. I'm praying for its return. 

It would be really easy to run to all those financially bad decisions or the ones where people were simply deceptively wicked. In other words, "God, restore my money." 

It would be easy to write down all the names of people that I have hurt or that have hurt me; relationships that are strained or non-existent. "God, restore my relationships." 

I have to admit those things are in my prayer package but they aren't what I desire the most. 

The thing I pray for the most is a return of my innocence; my simple, child-like walk with the Lord when I was young. Somewhere in the last 40 it's become complicated and muddy. 

I pray for a return of child-like faith; one that is not ruined by reason and the deep desire for theological understanding. 

I pray for a return of child-like thinking that is not saturated with impure images or ungodly thoughts. 

I pray for a return to having the world around me provoke me to spontaneous praise of my Creator like the many times I was led to on the farm. 

I turned 50 this year and I know the key to this return. "'Return to me,' declares the Almighty, 'and I will return to you."(Zech. 1:3). Does that mean my stuff too? Just joking, Lord! Sort of.