Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28:20
“I am gonna have my daddy for about three more months.” The text from my friend Sheila entered my heart, weighing it down like lead as I absorbed its meaning.
Her father had undergone many tests while we waited for answers, and now the outcome was exactly what we feared: the worst. How do you respond to something like that?
Every word I thought to write back seemed hollow. Instead, my impulse was to go, wrap my arms around my friend, and cry with her. We’d do a lot of that in the coming days.
What do you do when your world falls apart? In those moments when the abyss of darkness opens up? To whom do you go? Where do you look for comfort, for meaning, for hope?
Oswald Chambers writes, “Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in light of what we believe.” I saw this principle at work in Sheila as she walked through the valley of her father’s death.
She grieved, yes. But rather than giving in to despair, she chose to interpret her father’s passing in light of her faith. Jesus was with her to the end of the age. Nothing–not even the death of her loved one–could separate her from His love. And she would see her father again in heaven.
Faith step: Whatever situation you’re facing, Jesus is there. Let Him write it on your heart: I am with you always, even through (Fill in the Blank).
