CARRIED!

The other day I was at a family wedding with all the clan gathered to make merry. Among them was Julie, my cousin’s daughter.

I tell you everyone’s getting old! This was the wee one I used to bounce on my knees 25 years ago. Now she’s a bonnie lady, full of spark and cheer.

So I decided to test out my upper body strength and prove to one and all that I, alone, had not aged. All those long hours at Landry Fitness Center (ahem!) paid off.

I did it in perfect style, following all the rules: maintain a stable center of gravity, back straight, feet apart, one in front of the other, knees slightly flexed, object being lifted close to the body, head up, chin in, etc. Yup! They all got a workout: lat. dorsi, trap., erector spinae, glutei, triceps, biceps, and the rest of ye olde musculoskeletal apparatus.

Not that Julie weighed much! (Go eat some JIF, girl!)

And neither did she need any carrying anymore.

But we do. We all do. And God promises to do the heavy work.

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

This is a tender and merciful God who knows His people need carrying. And carry them, He does. All their days.

“You who have been borne by Me from birth
And have been carried from the womb;
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 46:3–4

A carrying God. A delivering God.

For He said, “Surely, they are My people, ….”
So He became their Savior.
In all their affliction He was afflicted ….
In His love and in His mercy
He redeemed them,
And He lifted them and carried them
all the days of old.
Isaiah 63:8–9

Isn’t that amazing—“In all their affliction He was afflicted.” He suffers with us, and He suffers for us. Jesus Christ, God incarnate, paid the prize of our sins.

There is nobody like this carrying God.

“To whom would you liken Me
And make Me equal and compare Me,
That we would be alike?”
Isaiah 46:5

In fact, God challenges us: “What are you carrying?”

“Those who lavish gold from the purse
And weigh silver on the scale
Hire a goldsmith,
and he makes it into a god; …
They lift it upon the shoulder and carry it;
They set it in its place and it stands there.
It does not move from its place.
Though one may cry to it,
it cannot answer;
It cannot deliver him from his distress.”
Isaiah 46:6–7

What do we carry, thinking it can take the place of God? What do we carry, hoping it can deliver? What do we carry, assuming it can satisfy, fulfill, and delight?

“Gather yourselves and come;
Draw near together,
you fugitives of the nations;
They have no knowledge,
Who carry about their wooden idol
And pray to a god who cannot save.”
Isaiah 45:20

Nobody else can, but God. Nothing else can.

“… there is no other God besides Me,
A righteous God and a Savior;
There is none except Me.
Isaiah 45:21

And this God asks us to lay down what we are carrying and, instead, be carried by Him. The carrying God. Hang on to Him!