EthniClay
"Expressions of God's Grace"
Modelling Clay Figurines
Artwork & Photography by Grace Wiebe - © Grace Wiebe, EthniClay™, 2006
The VALLEY OF ACHOR (TROUBLE)
BECOMES A DOOR OF HOPE
Hosea 2:14, 15 "...Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. 15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor (trouble) a DOOR OF HOPE. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt." (NIV)
I have been increasingly experiencing the reality of this: that it is our very troubles that God turns around into DOORS OF HOPE when we fix the 'eyes of our hearts' (Ephesians.1) onto Him in the midst of our troubles and believe and declare His Word to be true even while we're in the midst of these trials or devastations which seem to have no way out but look to us like total disaster! As we fix our eyes on Jesus and on the unseen instead of the seen, we will begin to be amazed at how He does this...again and again and again.
We are told in the Psalms, numerous times, that the righteous have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them ALL. In Psalms we are also told a secret - that if we sacrifice thank offerings to God (I assume it's a sacrifice because it's in a situation in which it's difficult to thank Him in) - this honors Him, and in so doing, it actually prepares the way for us to receive God's salvation into our lives and into these very situations - because it is focusing on Him, by faith, instead of on fear/our problems and pain. We may not be thanking Him for the situation, but we can thank Him for who He is in the situation and that His heart is to turn it into a Door of Hope for us!
This figurine depicts a child of God that has been grieving and wiping their tears in the midst of an ugly and painful mess of circumstances and darkness in their life, but they have begun to look up from their circumstances and have begun to call out in thanksgiving to their Father who has said that He would turn their Valleys of Trouble into DOORS OF HOPE. Soon the eyes of their heart will see this Door of Hope open up in the midst of their circumstance/s (He is the Door and the God of Hope) and they will see Him inviting them to go through it into a place of deeper intimacy with Him as they see Him turn their situation/s into hope! The jewelled gate is representative of the jewelled gates of heaven/the kingdom of God speaks of in Revelation, and the door is a pearl, also from the same picture. God's head and face are described as white in some places in Scripture and He is also called THE LIGHT. His face shines like the sun, thus the light rays of His light and truth are removing the darkness/blindness from the 'eyes of the heart' so the person can recognize the truth and not be blinded by the dakrness and false perceptions the enemy is using to try to bring discouragement or despair.
A couple other versions say it this way: Hosea 2:14 "Therefore, behold, I will allure her [Israel] and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak tenderly and to her heart. 15There I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [troubling] to be for her a door of hope and expectation. And she shall sing there and respond as in the days of her youth and as at the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt."– (Amplified)
14-15 "And now, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to start all over again. I'm taking her back out into the wilderness where we had our first date, and I'll court her. I'll give her bouquets of roses. I'll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope. She'll respond like she did as a young girl, those days when she was fresh out of Egypt." - (The Message)
