Go With God!

“O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. You hem me in – behind and before…Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast…How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” Psalm 139:1-24.

Reading the words of this chapter for me is like diving into fresh water when I am burning up under the scorching sun. This past year has been a year of going to the heavens in prayer…God was listening. It has been making my bed in the depths of despair…God knelt with me in comfort. It has been a year of rising on the wings of morning hope…God kept promising. It has been a year of settling on the furthest side of the sea of loneliness…God never left me. He was there to guide and hold me, and to eventually deliver me.

The night after Daddy died, I was tucking Bud in when I felt the most amazing presence of my dad’s spirit in the room with us. I felt he was watching and loving me, pleased that I was serving Christ through caring for Bud. Throughout this journey there have been continuous God sightings. With God at the helm, there have been tears of joy and tears of frustration. There have been humbling experiences and mountaintop celebrations. Christ offered me drinks daily of restoration and endurance when my throat was parched and my soul was hungry. Wherever I was God came walking. He accompanied me in the car the morning we rushed Bud to the Hospice House. He sat with me by Bud’s side day by day as Bud did the work to pass from one life into the next. God drenched me in His peace as I was seated next to Bud as he took his final breath and reached out, grabbing the hand of Christ. God was there and God is here.

Wherever you are and whatever you do, allow Christ to navigate you through this journey. I have always heard the simple phrase, Go with God, but now I have heard it with my heart.

In the words of Job 42:5, ‘My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.’