Embraced by His Mercy
A few weeks ago, we gathered together for a verse mapping session on Lamentations 3:22–23. We thought it would be a simple study—one verse, one broadcast, one quiet unfolding of truth.
But as we began to dig, the depth of God’s mercy opened before us like a well without bottom. There was too much to take in at once, too many layers to rush past. We had to split the session into two parts, because the story hidden in those few words was too sacred, too necessary to hurry.
It was there that the Hebrew word rose from the rubble of ancient sorrow: rachamim. Born from the word for “womb,” rachamim revealed a kind of mercy that was not cold or conditional, but sheltering. Enveloping. Fiercely tender. It spoke of a compassion that did not wait for performance, but wrapped itself around the fragile and the broken like a mother carrying a child.
In the womb, the child does nothing to earn care. It cannot work for nourishment. It simply belongs. It is carried by a love it cannot yet understand.
That picture stayed with me long after the teaching ended. Because somewhere along the way, I realized, I had begun to live like God’s mercy had to be earned. That His love was a response to my effort, my healing, my becoming “better.” I forgot that mercy is womb-like. That it holds first. That it loves first. That it carries before we ever know how to walk back.
“Embraced: From Broken to Beloved” was born out of that realization. Not because I had perfectly learned to rest in mercy—but because I am still learning. Still laying down the old barriers of shame and striving. Still returning, step by small step, to the heart of a Father whose arms have never closed.
This devotional walks through the shadows many of us know all too well: sorrow, exile, shame, fatigue. But it doesn’t end there. It leads us by the hand to the steady sunrise of daily mercies, to the rebuilding of belonging, to the faithful embrace that never lets go.
It’s not a handbook for fixing yourself. It’s an invitation to be carried again.
If you, like me, are ready to stop earning and start resting… if you need a reminder that God’s compassion is not fragile or fickle… if you are tired of striving and ready to be gathered into mercy…
You are invited to walk this road. You are not too far. You are not forgotten. You are not beyond His embrace.
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
—Lamentations 3:22–23
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