Never Alone

Sometimes the littlest thing can drive me to tears.
Today it was a clogged toilet. 
Now, clogged toilets are not ordinarily something that I find overwhelming or difficult to deal with. But my toilet has been clogging multiple times a day and my patience is starting to wear thin. The last time it clogged I went and borrowed my parent's plunger which is much more hefty than mine and managed to get it unplugged. Today was looking like it was going to be one of those days. After at least 20 minutes of failed attempts to plunge the toilet I hopped in the car and drove down the road to my parents house feeling frustrated that I had to waste my time on this silly toilet. I walked in and told my dad that I need to borrow the plunger--the frustration obvious in my voice, if not in the fake smile pasted across my face. He smiled  and said, "It's good practice."

I knew what he meant; I am hoping to buy a house after renting for 4 years and while right now I have a landlord to fall back on, pretty soon all the responsibility of a house will be mine. So yes, I had better learn to (successfully) plunge my own toilets. 

But what it felt like was just another reminder that I am alone. I don't have a husband to plunge the toilets or kill the bugs, or tell me what that funny noise is that my car is making. I don't live at home and so I don't have dad or brothers around to always do those things either. 

As I stomped out to my car and got in and slammed the door behind the plunger I had thrown in the backseat, hot tears stung my eyes. Because really, the truth is sometimes it makes me angry. When I see my friends around me getting married and having babies; When I see the joy that those little ones bring; When I come home to an empty house---sometimes that ache is too great to bear. 

I turned on the radio reflexively as I got into the car. It took a moment for the words to reach me then my tears started to come harder, but less angry, and more repentant and grateful as I heard these words.

"Never once did we ever walk alone, 

Never once did You leave us on our own. 

You are faithful, God, You are Faithful!" 

(Matt Redman)

Sometimes in the midst of the difficulties, and heartaches of this life we can lose sight of this simple truth. We look at our circumstances and say, "God, where are You?" 

The Answer is simple. He is Immanuel. He is here with us. No. Matter. What. He will never leave us on our own. 

P.S. (I got the toilet unplugged. I think I need to invest in a better plunger.)

He is For us

"It tells me what my Father hath, in store for everyday, And, tho' I tread a darksome path, yields sunshine all the way.--"

Sunday morning, while singing this I accidentally sang "dread" instead of "tread" and thought, isn't that so often my problem? --I don't really "tread a darksome path"-- the Lord has truly blessed me with "sunshine all the way" but so often I "dread a darksome path," failing to trust my Father's love. 
Ann Voskamp says, "All fear is but the the notion that God's love ends." And this is my problem-- I fear-- I fear what might be or what might not be... I fear rather than trust.

The Lord brought these verses to mind--He is for us...

"What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:31-32

"He is the God that is so for us that He can't stay away from us. The God who loves us and likes us and isn't merely 50 percent or 72.3 percent for us, but the God who is always, unequivocally, 100 percent for us--the God who so likes us, the God who is so for us that He is the God who chooses to be with us (A.V. The Greatest Gift)." 

The rest of Romans 8 explains how God is for us-- 

"Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?" "God is for us." The accusations are ended.

"Who is to condemn?" "God is for us." The condemnation is no longer ours to bear.

Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? "God is for us." There is no longer anything that can separate us from the Love of Christ.

So as we remember that He came as Immanuel, God with us,may we also remember that He came because of His great Love for us.
A Love that silences the accusations..." You are not enough." He became nothing to give us all things.
A Love that bore our condemnation. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus."
A Love that came to dwell with us. Immanuel. The Final Word.

The Voice of the Lord

Inspired from Psalm 29

In a Bethlehem town a cry was heard
a child was born-- the Living Word

The Voice that rules the lands and sea, 
embodied in an infant's cry, how can it be?

The Voice that thunders o'er the deep,
is now barely heard among the sheep.

The One who would one day cry out from a cross, 
became an infant to save the lost

The One whose word had the power to heal,
cried out to His mother for his next meal. 

The One who's very words have the power to save, 
Entered time with the cry of a newborn Babe. 

My mind can scarcely comprehend
How the Lord came down to make me His friend

How the One whose words hold the World in place
Would be born into this human race

To become like us, to bear our sin
To die for us, to make us kin

God with us--a babe first came. 
To heal the sick, the blind and lame

This is our LORD, our God and King!
His name we proclaim--His praise do we sing!