Emmanuel #19 Wonderful Counselor
Two very close friends will never forget Christmas 2022. One has just watched her mother pass from this world to her heavenly home. Her husband is a pastor and tested positive for COVID and was not able to join her and be with her. They have even had to postpone the funeral until he is able to perform the service.
A text came in at 5AM from another friend who had just driven with her husband from the Lake here in VA to see her son in Missouri and was heading later in the week to her daughter's home in Colorado. Her brother called to say her father was unresponsive and had been taken to the ER. He died hours later and this friend was alone on a flight back to VA.
As my husband and I prayed for these church members he said he'd just heard a new song called
“Take it to Jesus” Anna Golden and Kari Jobe
The lyrics ring so true. There are so many times we don’t know what to do. We just want someone to tell us what to do.
I emailed my friends and said,
It’s hard to grasp the situations y’all are facing. Particularly, the aloneness of having to face this without your husbands at your sides, but as I prayed about that God said, “When you are alone I am closer.” I know that is true. I am so quick to turn to my husband for comfort and wisdom. I thank God you know him and I know you both are feeling God’s presence.
I opened Ruth Chou Simons' Emmanuel Advent devotional to Day 19 and the title was Wonderful Counselor.
The name Wonderful Counselor literally means "wonder of a counselor”
Simons wrote “Giving counsel is what God does. He is our true source of hope and help, directing us to His good purposes and His right ways. Jesus, our Counselor, is the only one who can truly satisfy the questions and wrestlings of our hearts because He’s the one who knows every detail about us and the plans He has for us…Wonderful Counselor reminds us that our Savior is all-wise, all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful. He holds wisdom that we can’t even fathom!"
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain it. Psalm 139:6
Hold onto Jesus, He’s holding on to you! (That's another song lyric.)
The Songs
“His Name is Wonderful” Chris Tomlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUhJNA0XGqc
“Wonderful” by Cain
