Lamentations 3:19–24 (19)Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! (20)My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. (21)But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: (22)The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; (23)they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (24)“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”(ESV)
Then something changed.
The path was still blocked. The suffering was still real. The writer hadn’t received an explanation, and God hadn’t yet removed him from the darkness.
But he remembered.
Imagine a kitten fighting against the hands holding it. It twists, claws, and reaches for any direction that might lead to freedom. Every attempted escape is blocked. From the kitten’s perspective, the person holding it is actively working against everything it wants.
The kitten can’t see the danger beneath it. It doesn’t understand why the path is closed. It only knows that the hand won’t let it go.
That’s the turn in Lamentations. The writer couldn’t explain what God was doing, so he reached beneath his circumstances and remembered who God had always been. He stopped measuring God’s character by the path in front of him.
God may oppose our movement without opposing us.
The hand blocking every escape may be the same hand keeping us from falling. We may not understand the restraint, but we can remember the One holding us.
Walking With Christ 
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