Job

It has been a Job sort of season in my life. And handily enough, right now we are reading Job in the daily Mass readings-- so very fitting to what is going on in my life right now. I have been complaining to God and asking Him a lot of "why Lord?" And then I look at Job's life, at the amazing gifts he had received, and how devastating it was when it was all taken away, and I am inspired by his response in the midst of terrible devastation: "The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away, Blessed be the name of the Lord."  May I learn to respond like Job.

Today's reading is so filled with hope - so I thought I'd share:

Jb 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17


Job answered the LORD and said:
I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be hindered.
I have dealt with great things that I do not understand;
things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.
I had heard of you by word of mouth,
but now my eye has seen you.
Therefore I disown what I have said,
and repent in dust and ashes.

Thus the LORD blessed the latter days of Job
more than his earlier ones.
For he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels,
a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses.
And he had seven sons and three daughters,
of whom he called the first Jemimah,
the second Keziah, and the third Kerenhappuch.
In all the land no other women were as beautiful
as the daughters of Job;
and their father gave them an inheritance
along with their brothers.
After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years;
and he saw his children, his grandchildren,
and even his great-grandchildren.
Then Job died, old and full of years.