Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 42 verses 12 through 15:
12The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys.13He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 15In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers.
There is an old Garth Brooks’s song about a widower trying starting over again after his former life was lost. The song is a ballad and titled, “Learning to Live Again”.
Job has learned to live again. Having lost so much, including his children, I’m sure it didn’t happen over night. It took time and Job was fortunate to have lived 140 years to see it all through. He could have died of a broken heart a long time before.
One of the truly most amazing signs of Job’s resiliency is his willingness to have children again. Surely this was difficult, after having lost others before. And surely there would have been the temptation not to give too much of himself to those children — not to delight in them because they too could be taken. And yet, Job seems to have delighted in them indeed — at least in the girls. For he gave them the fun and playful and very beautiful names Jemimah — meaning Turtledove, Keziah — meaning Spice, and Keren-happuch — meaning Vanity Box. Surely these daughters were to Job precious containers of beauty.
Job learned to live again. He let himself hope again. He gave himself permission to find joy once again. What a risk it was to do so; and yet step by step and day by day and child by child he said yes to loving the beauty of this world. Even in spite of its pain, Job still said yes living life again.
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