I recently led a women’s retreat in which I began with a simple question: “In one word, how would you describe the character of God?” These precious women hollered out answers faster than I could record them on a white board. They listed: “love, peace, grace, faithfulness, goodness, kindness, joy, justice, righteousness, sacrifice, sovereign, I AM; the list goes on. When the board was full, I signaled for them to stop. Pointing to the words, I explained, “All of this is the hesed of God.” 

The Hebrew Bible employs one word that encompasses the character of God. The word is hesed; it appears 248 times. When the Bible scholars translated the Hebrew Bible from Hebrew to Greek, they had a difficult time with the word hesed, because it encompasses all of God’s attributes. There isn’t a similar word in Greek, nor is there one in English.

We witness God’s hesed throughout the Old Testament. God revealed his hesed – the nature of his glory – when he hid Moses in a cleft and passed before him, saying, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (Exodus 34:6-7). The phrase “steadfast love” is translated from the Hebrew word hesed.

The New Testament was written in Greek, not Hebrew; therefore, the word hesed doesn’t appear here. Nevertheless, every page of the New Testament is drenched in God’s mercy, grace, favor, goodness, and steadfast love. When the lowly shepherds stood in a Bethlehem stable, peering into a manger, they were looking into the Incarnation of God’s hesed. When the jeering crowd looked upon Jesus’ mangled and tortured body hanging from the cross, they too were gazing upon God’s hesed. When the disciples and 3000 others were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they experienced the hesed of God.

PERSONAL STORY

My writing journey began in 2006 when I awoke one night with a single sentence running through my brain: “Life was John’s smile, but now he was gone.” This sentence invaded my thoughts for days, and like the water swirling in an eddy, it grew momentum. As it grew, a story began to formulate in my brain. The story was about a woman named Kathryn, a widow who was dreading her first Christmas alone without her beloved husband. Grief-stricken, Kathryn withdraws from the Christmas traditions once held dear until a precocious and historical neighbor, seven-year-old Abigail, prods her to drag the Christmas decorations from storage. A silver charm bracelet resurfacing among the boxes prepares Kathryn’s broken heart to receive a life changing miracle.

Here is where I need to be honest. Despite the fascinating storyline and interesting characters, I didn’t want to write a novel. And I told God so. In fact, I told our heavenly Father, the Lord of the Universe, that I refused to write it. After all, I was a middle school math and science teacher. The only sentences I wrote were A x B=AB. My sentences didn’t have prepositional phrases, and they certainly didn’t have the fluff or descriptive phrases like the ones you find in a novel. I even told God, “Let’s call our good friend, June. She’s an incredible writer, and she will do wonders with this story.”  

In my disobedience, I distanced myself from God. Gradually, my heart began to break. One day, in desperation, I threw myself on the floor and cried. “Lord, if you want me to write this novel, then you need to provide me with tools that will teach me how to write a sentence; one sentence, that’s all I ask.” Three hours later I walked out to our mailbox where I found a Greater Courses catalog.  Featured on the front cover was a writing course offered by the University of Iowa, one of the best writing institutions in the United States. The name of the course was Building Great Sentences. I stood beside the mailbox that day, laughing and then crying, looking up to the sky as though I was peering into the heavens. I said to God, “You and I are writing a novel, aren’t we?” I ordered the course and commenced studying the art of writing.

To this day, I marvel when I reflect upon my seven-year journey writing The Christmas Bracelet. Throughout the entire project, the Lord never left me. He was merciful and kind during those initial days when I recoiled at the thought of writing a novel. Graciously, he provided the tools I needed to teach me how to write. His steadfast love supported and carried me through many trials and tribulations. During these seven years, God revealed his character and his many attributes in ways I hadn’t previously experienced.

CHALLENGE FOR GRANDPARENTS

Can you recall a time when you looked upon or experienced God’s hesed? Was it in the form of mercy, grace, love, kindness, favor, blessing, or another one of God’s many attributes? Is there a God-story that accompanies your answer to these questions? If so, it belongs in the portfolio of your testimony.

 Every Christian, who is walking with the Lord, has a portfolio of incredible God-stories in their testimony. I John 5:10 tells us, “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.” The testimony is Jesus. When we share faith stories about our encounters with God and the times we’ve experienced his hesed, we are sharing the testimony within us.

When Jesus told the disciples that they would “be witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8), he was talking to us, too. We are called to be his testimony. As witnesses, we aren’t required to prove the point that Jesus is Savior and Lord; we simply share our stories about experiencing God’s hesed and leave the results to him.

All Scripture references are in New International Version (NIV).