Deep Thoughts for a Friday

"What is that thing?  When is he leaving?"

  The world is an uncertain place.

  Just as they believe the fiscal crisis in Greece was passing, another crops up in Italy.

  We're still at war in Afghanistan, ten years later, and while it seems like most people would like to leave, no one knows what would happen if we did.

  I suppose the recession in this country is over, but it doesn't feel like it some days.  I talk to people, pray with and for people, who are desperate for jobs, who apply and apply and apply until they don't think they can, and they count themselves lucky to hear back.

  Milk costs $3.99 a gallon last time I was at the store.

  Great time to have a child, isn't it?

  Sometimes I laugh when I'm trying to think of the good things going on in the world that I can tell Caleb about.  I have to think pretty hard, and some of the good things seem so minor compared to the headlines of the day.

  Yet, in the midst of all of this, God abides.

Look at me!  I'm so cute!

  I believe, in the depths of my soul, that God abides with each of us throughout our lives.  Paul writes this so eloquently in the 8th chapter of Romans (For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.) and it is evident throughout the witness of Scripture that God's love is not simply some cosmic ideal--but a reality, more certain than anything else in our lives.  Just as that pillar of fire was with the Israelites by day, just as the pillar of smoke led them by night, God abides with us.

  It's a truth I have not always accepted easily.  It's hard to believe in something that you cannot see, cannot touch, and sometimes cannot sense.  It takes great faith to believe that when I'm in an empty room and lift my voice to the Lord that God hears my prayers.

  But that's the type of faith I hope that Caleb grows and matures into--a faith that is steady, that is based on the truth that God is with him always.  In the darkest of the nights of his life, I pray that he will know that God abides, that God is always faithful, that God will not fail him.  I've been preparing a Sunday School on Mormonism, and there is a belief that the Holy Ghost can be in one place at a time.  I would struggle so much with such a faith--I need the constant assurance that God is near, that the feeble whispers of my heart can their way to his loving ears.  I need to know that when my strength falters and my soul tumbles, that I tumble directly into the omnipresent hands of my Creator.  I need this--it is not simply a desire of my heart, but a need that encompasses my being and drives me forward.  Without the assurance of God's presence, I could scarcely move.

  My son is almost 6 weeks old.  He cannot move his arms with any semblance of control.  He drools like a St. Bernard, and it will be years before he can utter a complete sentence (at which point I will remember the bliss of the days before speaking).  I dare not look forward to the day when diapers disappear into his past, for I know that is a long time coming.  When your next major landmark is being able to control your head, walking is still a long way off.  (thanks be to God!)  Despite all this, I believe that the hands of the Holy Spirit hold him up every second of his life, every beat of his little heart, and every breath/pant/grunt that he takes.  I believe that God sustains his very life, just as he does mine.  It is my hope, deep within my heart, that he grows into a faith that provides him with the assurance that these things are true so that, in the trials that I pray do not come but most certainly will, he will turn to his Savior and know that God is faithful and solid.