Dear Job,
Were the effects of your trauma immediately healed when you heard from God that day?
Did your lamenting and honesty with Him protect you from PTSD?
Was it easy to be fully present and engaged in all that was restored for the rest of your 140 years?
Or…
Did you feel the lingering effects of trauma even after you heard from God?
Did you cautiously train your camel riders to fight off invaders in case they were attacked again?
Did you anxiously search your body for boils or ulcers, fearing that they may one day return?
Were there times when you waited with bated breath as a storm rolled in and you remembered the
storm that changed it all?
Did you hold your ten new babies extra tight as you wept over the ten that you buried and prayed extra hard for their safety in the years to come?
Did your nervous system stay hypervigilant for years before you began to trust that what was restored would remain?
Or…
Did you just instantly trust your Maker?
Wrestling in Hope,
A Fellow Survivor
Painting: Acrylics and pastels on canvas by Heather Medley
Heather Medley is a woman who is learning to be present and kind to herself and to the people she loves. She is drawn to engage her world with hope of restoration and redemption and gets to do this professionally as a therapist. She loves deep conversations over hot beverages, neuroscience research papers, and bargain shopping. Heather, her anchoring husband, and two delightful kiddos reside in the Northwest Georgia Mountains.
Thank you for this Heather – Every question left me feeling more connected with both Job and his suffering along with my own stories of suffering. And, your art is stunning.
Thank you, Tracy.
Wow! Poignant! I’m such a realist that I often (too, often) takes things at face value and don’t ask the leading question – “tell me more.” It would be great to have some insight into Jobs last 140 years. Your painting of Job (tells me) he was thankful but, forever, cautious.
I really resonate with this. How many times I’ve wondered if I had just enough faith or just enough trust, it would heal the broken places? Your questions are eloquent in their longing and hope. And thank you so much for including your art!
I love the naming of trauma in the Bible. More of this!
Thank you for your beautiful writing. I’ve always hated the glossing over of Job’s losses with the idea that a new family was given to him in the end so all was made well. I’ve never heard anyone voice these questions about what life was like for him after so much trauma even with the new blessings. I love your questions and naming the loss.