Arms of Love (50 page)

Novel Question: How does time influence Adam’s struggles in the story?

What time in your life do you wish you could change?

Pray for one minute, asking God to access the time you listed above and to bring about change related to this time.

What do you fear about the future?

How can you surrender these fears to the eternal God?

Prayer
: Eternal God, you know all about me—even before You “knit me together in my mother’s womb.” You know the choices I have made; You know where I am now and where I will go. Please let me grasp just one moment of Your eternity, one sense of Your power over time.

Day Two: A Dwelling Place

Author’s Insight
: For Adam and for Joseph, the concept of home is not a pleasant one. For many of us, whether now or in our childhood, it is the same story—home does not or did not mean security or love. Maybe it was a place of stress, abuse, or neglect. Maybe you close the door on the place where you sleep and wish everything outside that door would disappear. God understands our need for a dwelling place, a true home. God promises that we can find that home in Him and that because of His eternal nature, it is an eternal home—one of endless love, support, and genuine caring. A place to dwell means a place to linger, to stay, to be comfortable in who you are and to know that you are accepted. God offers this dwelling place based on the cross, not on what you do. Deuteronomy 33:27 offers hope that you always have a place to dwell, to abide, to lay your head down in the power and presence of the Living God.

Novel Question: What is home like for Isaac? Why does he have such a deep attachment to animals?

What was your childhood home like?

Do you feel that you have a true dwelling place of peace in your life?

How does this verse give you hope of a dwelling place beyond the earthly walls, past or present, of a house?

Prayer
: Dear Eternal God, thank You for loving me, for offering me a dwelling place, a place to live in abundance on this earth, even in the midst of troubles. Help me to spend more time with You, talking to You and discovering the wonders of the dwelling place that You have made for me.

Day Three: The Underneath Part

Author’s Insight
: For Adam, what lies underneath the functioning of his days is the part of his life that is most important. It gnaws at him, draws him, and confuses him badly. All of us carry “an underneath part” in our lives. We all have secrets, sins, and hurts that form an interior of our lives that we often try to avoid—much like we’d rather see the top of a cliff than be looking up at its precarious underside. Yet there is deep value to what is underneath—God might say that this is where our souls are hidden, where “who we really are” plays out in a day, where the secrets of our hearts beat. God also says that what is underneath Him is His everlasting arms. I love this image—just imagine God’s arms underneath all of your hidden self, holding you, surrounding you, loving you. God is more than willing to encompass all of our underneath parts if only we will allow Him to do so.

Novel Question: Lena is very impulsive and young as a character. I wanted her growth to occur at glacier speed—the way our own growth usually happens. How does Lena learn, even to a small degree, that what lies underneath, in both herself and others, is what truly matters?

What lies “underneath” in your own life? What do you not like to talk or think about?

Now consider the underneath supports that gird your life, giving you strength and encouragement. List these.