Empty
Gutted
Grieving.
A breakup.
A divorce.
A death.
A situation you didn’t want.
An event you didn’t want to happen.
The loss
Of something
You really wanted to happen
And then it didn’t.

One of the rules
Of good interior design
Is the importance
Of negative space.
Because it allows the moments
In a room
For your eye to rest.
It also gives the other objects
In the space
A backdrop
A canvas,
So that you notice
Their beauty.
Instead of running altogether
One thing after another
Like a run-on sentence
With no punctuation.

The thing is,
In real life
Negative space
Can sometimes feel,
Well,
Negative.
Uncomfortable
Even unbearable.

But being The Master Designer
That He is,
Sometimes God
Uses negative space
As His backdrop.
Sometimes,
He has to make room.

Sometimes
He asks us
To pour something out.
To give something up.
To let go.
To make room.
Sometimes
Negative space
Is the rest
The pause before…
Something better.

Because He doesn’t leave it empty.

And you don’t have to
Take my word for it.
He said so Himself.

In Malachi 3:10
He says:
“…Prove me now herewith,
Saith the Lord of hosts,
If I will not
Open you
The windows of heaven
And pour you out a blessing,
That there shall not be
Room enough
To receive it.”

Blessings poured out
So numerous
That there isn’t enough room.
So abundant
That you can’t even hold them –
In your hands
In your home
In your heart –
Because there
Are so many.
Costco-sized blessings.
Cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs-sized blessings.

More than you even thought possible.

More joy
More peace
More healing
More Jesus
More than you can even imagine.

So it makes sense
That you might need
To clean out some things.
Just as you might:
Clean out a closet
To make room
For a new wardrobe;
Or
Clean out a room
For a new baby
Or
A new experience.

And we still won’t have
Quite enough room
To receive all of it.

So those moments
Of rest,
Of negative space,
Are not for nothing.
It’s not just empty
For emptiness’ sake.

It’s essential.

It’s the preparation
For what’s to come.
And it’s going to be good.
He said so.

What a promise!

And in verse 11,
He says:
“And I will
Rebuke the devourer
For your sakes,
And he shall not
Destroy the fruits
Of your ground;
Neither shall your vine
Cast her fruit
Before the time
In the field,
Saith the Lord of hosts.”

So not only
Will the blessings
Be abundant,
He will also protect
The goodness
Of the fruits
We already have.

And the last part
Is a beautiful reminder
That fruit takes time
To ripen
To become sweet.
So when we long for grapes
While they are still growing,
Just remember
Some miracles take time
To fully develop their sweetness.

What can we do
In the negative space
According to this scripture:

Practice gratitude.
Keep your eye on the good things
That are still there.

Practice patience,
While those blessings ripen.
It’s going to be so worth it.

Practice faith and believe.

Do you remember the famine
That lasted for 3 years?
The prophet Elijah
Told the people:

Rain is coming.
Finally.
Get ready.

When they heard that,
I wonder what they did.
Did they get their umbrellas?

Did they bring in
Their basketballs
And bikes
And yard tools
That were laying out
So they wouldn’t get wet
Like my kids do?

Did they take
Their empty water vessels
And put them outside
To collect the rain?
The rain that wasn’t there yet?

Elijah sent a servant
To go check
For the promised storm.

So the servant went,
And he checked.
Six times
He came back,
And delivered the sad news:
There isn’t a cloud in the sky.
I’m sorry.

But on the seventh time
He went and checked.
And his report was:
Well,
There is a tiny cloud –
About the size
Of a man’s hand.

Perhaps not
What he expected.
And he could have disregarded it.
Did he think:
“There is no way
That cloud
Could possibly
Bring the kind of rain
That Elijah was talking about”?
Did he question
The promised downpour
That Elijah seemed to think
Was on the way?

But in that moment
Elijah tells the king:
You should probably
Prepare your chariot
And start your journey home.
There’s a huge storm coming,
After all.

And that teensy cloud
Slowly grew
Like a ripening fruit.

Until
“The heaven
Was black with clouds
And wind,
And there was a great rain.”

After 3 years.
Of nothing.
Three years of empty.

And was the rain
Even greater
Than they were expecting?
And maybe even,
Probably,
More than they needed.

Did their vessels –
Once empty –
Overflow?

I can only speculate
Because it doesn’t say,
But I’m guessing they did.
Because I do know
That in my life
There have been moments
When I feel empty
Gutted by loss.
Grieving something
That happened.
Or grieving something
That didn’t happen.

And then the rain came.

And I want to always remember
That in those losses –
The grieving
The emptying
The pouring out
The negative space
The uncomfortable
The unbearable –
That it’s not the end
Of the story.
It’s just the middle.
The canvas
The backdrop
For what’s to come;
For blessings and miracles
So big
There simply isn’t enough room
To receive it all.

So if you
Happen to be there –
In the middle
In your story,
In the middle
Of the negative space –
What I want to remind you is:
This is just the setup.

Hold on.
Watch for that cloud.
Put your empty vessels outside.
Because it’s about to pour.

XO