The grasshopper came off the oriental grass that blows against my screened-in porch. Off and on for hours that day, I admired the grasshopper’s underbelly as he sat attached to the screen. If I had known then what I know now, I would have flicked him off the minute I first saw him. But I didn’t know, so he ate a dime-sized hole in my porch screen.
Not unlike the locusts of the Old Testament, that’s what grasshoppers do. They can damage and steal things that are ours.
Long ago, the Israelites were overcome with a great army of locusts which devoured and destroyed the land.
Do you ever feel loss like that? Like something has come and destroyed what was yours?
In the second chapter of Joel, God says, “I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten.”
Through the years, it has been a fairly common prayer of mine, “Lord, restore to me what the locust has eaten.”
“Why did I waste so much money and time on this curriculum that doesn’t work for us at all? Lord, restore to me what the locust has eaten.”
“This pregnancy will produce a produce a precious life, but the months of illness has taken its toll on me and on the rest of the family. Lord, restore to me what the locust has eaten.”
“I was depressed and discouraged and felt like I couldn’t move forward. And for too long. Lord, restore to me what the locust has eaten.”
“I have spent three years teaching the same child how to read and we are no further ahead. Lord, restore to me what the locust has eaten.”
These were all real circumstances and authentic prayers of mine. I can look back now and honestly say that God has restored all that to me. In fact, he has more than made up for those years.
Homeschooling is over for me, but in my life right now I am praying that God will restore to me time lost in a certain, personal area of my life. I can see the grasshopper chewing, but the situation is outside of my control. I feel helpless. But, like so many times before, I am praying that prayer again and trusting that God will be faithful, and I know that he will.
I don’t think it matters to God what the loss is or who caused it. Your bare area is not a surprise to God and He wants to help you.
God is in the restoration business. He says, “I will restore to you the years the locust has eaten.”
Ask God, like I have so many times, to restore what the locust has eaten. The hole is still in my screen; I am looking at it right now as I type. What a wonderful reminder of the many times I have asked – and He has answered and restored what the locust had eaten.
If you spot the locust, by all means, flick it away if you can. But for those times when you can only see the bareness through the rearview mirror or when it is just completely outside of your control, go straight to God for his help. With repentance, if necessary, and with humility ask him.
God wants to restore to you what the locust has eaten. In one way or another, and as only He can, He will restore.