Zephaniah offers a message of hope, but it is decidedly a message for the future. He calls them to new relationships, new visions and a new coming of God s kingdom. Restoration was his theme, not nostalgia. God also calls us to the renewal that love can bring. Verse 17 says, He will renew you in his love.
Love has the power to renew the soul.
Don t let yourself avoid relationships. Allow yourself to experience the love of God and especially the love of God as expressed through God s people. A woman, who had recently lost her husband and was facing her first Christmas without him, included in her Christmas cards a letter where she reflected upon some of her thoughts and feelings. Some say the first Christmas without my husband will be very painful. I'm sure it will be.