“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24
So at the dinner table that night when the kids were playing with their space balls and I was churning out facts about our universe; my own internal world was spinning out of its axis, my emotions a little out of its control.
I received the news and tried to stay calm.
But how do you calm a mama’s breaking heart whose 4-year-old had jumped to death in a fatal accident, or the wife whose husband of many decades died an instant death on a normal and unassuming Tuesday morning?
Life often feels so unpredictable, and what hope is there to get a move on, when life can anytime stall? There you’re left dealing with some aftermaths of the unknown…
This is what makes it so difficult, life can all be great one day, and then another day?, mateships can cease, marriages can implode, ministries dissipate, and motherhood? — draining…
My friend whose epidural shot went into the wrong spot told me, how the unknown and prolonged pain felt like a dagger not just through the legs, but the heart and mind as well.
Pain can mess with you, but it’s not knowing the when or why that punctuates it.
It can make you question, if really, anything is for keeps?
“…Okay, who here knows how big our universe is?”, I asked.
Can we sincerely put our trust in the One who claims Love, when a whole morning was spent comforting friends feeling unloved and uncertain with their many unknowns?
“Well”… I continued, “they say that the universe can be expressed in five terms. There’s time, space, matter, power, and motion, and that God incorporates all of that when He created our universe…”
“In the beginning [“time”] God created [“power”] the heaven [space] and the earth [matter] . . . And the Spirit of God moved [motion] upon the face of the waters.”
“The first thing the Bible tells us about the act of creation is…”, and I almost whispered it to myself — “He controls all the aspects of the universe.” Ah yes, that He’s on top of everything that happens in our universe. The good, the bad, and the very bad.
I saw their hands cupping the miniature planets, and I see how small our world must seem in the hand of the One who created it. From whom every life originates.
I don’t pretend to get it, how our inhabitable world is just a tiny weeny dot in the Milky Way, or how Earth is just one of the 10 trillion planetary systems of the known universe or more!
Or how we are a mere millionth fraction of the mass of the Sun.
It’s mind-boggling and completely mind-blowing!
And we may not understand it too, how there stands a good Father still in control who stays in charge of everything — both the jeopardy or jubilee of life.
I remember our dear Pastor, once healthy and now wheel-chair bound, who decides that the best way to live the rest of his life is to live it for God, and in the midst of screaming pain and daily bodily suffering, lives out this truth penned by JI Packer.
“God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives.
Felt weakness deepens dependence on Christ for strength each day.
The weaker we feel, the harder we lean.
And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away.
To live with your ‘thorn’ uncomplainingly — that is, sweet, patient, and free in heart to love and help others, even though every day you feel weak — is true sanctification.
It is true healing for the spirit.
It is a supreme victory of grace.” J.I. Packer
Jesus told us: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:23).
If believing is what He demands of us, then trusting Him is our soul’s true work.
In faith, we can live knowing even when life throws us many unknowns.
We can fill our minds with all the ways He’s loved us and speak life into the bleak and deathly in our world.
Because on that day when all looked hopeless, our worlds looking uncertain, and our tomorrows facing the unknown, Jesus went to the Cross.
And for three hours it was dark.
There were yelling and screaming at this innocent man hanging on the Cross.
Everybody thought it was over.
The whole world thought we were over.
Until 3 pm came, and Jesus died the exact time all the spotless lambs were sacrificed, in the exact place where all sinners needed their Saviour.
So we can know for certain:
That God had a plan all along.
He’d known all the way through that life doesn’t stop but start in the tomb.
The Cross is our forever antidote for a world gone bad, and for all of our crossroads marked “unknown” ,
so we who don’t know, and may not be known, may still live knowing.
And in a world where nothing is for keeps, this one can be for keeps:
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness”.
Because this is the truth —-
Whilst everything will one day cease, His steadfast love for us will never, ever cease…
Whilst the economy may plummet, His mercy on us will always prevail…
While health and youth may one day wane, His great faithfulness continues on and on and on….
And we are fully known, fully loved, fully safe.https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Eh5BpSnBBw?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent
This one here shows how crazily small we are in the cosmos of His creationhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/aVsqCLyoU3o?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent
And how much we are loved overherethough we are an insignificant dot