CARRIED!

My, how quickly they grow! Seems like it was only yesterday I was carrying them. Now these strapping youths—my nephews: a college freshman and the other in high school—carry me with ease. There I am, at their mercy. And thankfully, mercy they had, for they didn’t deposit me on the floor to pay me back for the hard times I’d given them all these years! I trusted them to bear me without damaging my delicate structure. But those muscles of theirs, now bursting with vim, and those joints today bouncing with vigor will, alas, one day be felled by feebleness and fractured by frailty. In other words, they, too, will end up like me—old and decrepit, out of kilter, weak in constitution! We humans are programmed to end our earthly days in such ignominy. There is only One whose muscles and joints unnerved and unhinged never become. If you have ever wondered who will hold you without failing, take heart. This One declares:

Even to your old age
I will be the same,
and even to your graying years
I will bear you!
I have done it,
and I will carry you;
and I will bear you
and I will deliver you.
Isaiah 46:4

One may trust muscles and joints, wallets and banks, honor and reputation—but they will all, without fail, come to naught. Only the omnipotent God can bear us through these days of tumult and trauma—the Creator God who is never tired or taxed, stressed or strained. Instead He lends us His strength, His might, His power.

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God,
the LORD, the Creator
of the ends of the earth
does not become weary or tired ….
He gives strength to the weary,
and to him who lacks might
He increases power.
Isaiah 40:28–29

Though bearing us through the turbulences of life and imbuing us with strength is cause for thanksgiving, let us never forget that this is a God who bore much more!

Surely our griefs
He Himself bore,
and our sorrows He carried;
yet we ourselves
esteemed Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through
for our transgressions,
He was crushed
for our iniquities;
the chastening
for our well-being
fell upon Him,
and by His scourging
we are healed.
… the LORD has caused
the iniquity of us all
to fall on Him.
… the Righteous One,
My Servant,
will justify the many,
as He will bear their iniquities.
Isaiah 53:4–6, 11

Yes, He did, our Lord Jesus Christ who …

… Himself bore our sins
in His body on the cross,
so that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness ….
1 Peter 2:24

And this God of love …

… who did not spare
His own Son,
but delivered Him over
for us all,
how will He not
also with Him
freely give us all things?
Romans 8:32

Ours is a God who can be trusted, as He reminded the Israelites.

The LORD your God
who goes before you
will Himself fight
on your behalf,
just as He did for you
in Egypt before your eyes,
and in the wilderness
where you saw how
the LORD your God carried you,
just as a man carries his son ….
Deuteronomy 1:30–31

Relax! This same God is carrying you.

Like a shepherd
He will tend His flock,
in His arm
He will gather the lambs
and carry them in His bosom;
He will gently lead
the nursing ewes.
Isaiah 40:11

He’ll bear us through 2008. Happy New Year!