Our Wonderful Counselor
BY EMILY ERICKSON
I was a Sociology major in my undergraduate career. People always asked me what I wanted to do with a major that studied individuals and cultures. Every time I would respond that I wanted to go into social work. Now two years later I am one year away from receiving my Masters in Social Work. Already it has been a journey full of growth and understanding more about the biblical perspective of what it means to help people through their life story.
While conducting therapy sessions there are moments when I just sit in the fragmented brokenness, listening to a person’s broken heart, watching expressions of pain sweep across their face.
I empathize alongside them, encourage them to move forward on their journey, and do my best to instill hope into their life. I often have to come to terms with the fact that all I can do is encourage. I am not able to fix an individual who feels so hopeless that all they can fixate on is figuring out a plan to end their life. Where their pain is so deep and their cry is so loud all I can do is to guide them to find that glimmer of hope. So that they can ruminate on that one person or item that will help them get back on track to keep moving forward.
It is not in our human power to fix the internal parts of a person’s soul. But, thankfully, there is the Great Physician, who knows how to mend the shattered pieces of the soul and make it whole again.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6 says it so well, yet I tend to skim over the words every time I hear them throughout the Christmas season. But, when I really study the words ‘Wonderful Counselor’ I take a step back … I envision the King of Kings sitting in the garden tending to my clients’ hearts and the intricate parts of their souls that need to be healed. Where weeds and lifeless flowers consume the rocky soil of the heart, the Giver of life is able to grow hope the soil, so that new roots would grow deep, full of restoration. He is the One who can bring liberation and rejuvenation in the internal depths where unattended wounds have not been repaired.
Jesus is in the therapy room, listening to these same individuals with a heart exploding with so much love for them. He cares so deeply — loves so fully. He understands pain and sorrow because He experienced it in his own flesh. Jesus looks at His child with sheer adoration gazing upon the soul that He created.
Jesus is in the therapy room, listening to these same individuals with a heart exploding with so much love for them.
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).
If you find yourself, dear friend, in a season where there may be insecurity, anxiety, or loneliness may you hold on to hope. Trust that the King of your life meets you in the garden of your heart desires to mend every aspect of your life, whether physical or spiritual.
He is our Wonderful Counselor who desires us to see our souls revived and restored. The One who walks alongside us through the trenches of pain and into the freedom of healing. Hold on to that truth. May you be able to see the Lord move and work in ways that you would never expect.