For the past 365 day we’ve all been on a journey, riding planet earth around the sun.  Don’t know about you, but this year’s trek has been a bumpy one.  Has your plane hit turbulence?  Is your ship rolling roughly through a stormy sea?  Just metaphors to be sure, but maybe you too have been besieged with pain, weakness, illness, or the anxiety of waiting for the next shoe to drop.  And then it did.  Now the illness is not just ours, but a pandemic in our country and throughout the world.

Oh I long to hear the words, “This is your Captain speaking.  We should be through this turbulence in about five minutes, and then we’ll have a smooth trip to . . .”     But wait, our journey around the sun continues, we can’t just get off this planet earth and land safely at some other destination.  Well, not yet anyway.

But we can speak to our Captain.  He’ll listen to our cries – I’m scared, I’m worried about my family, I’m not feeling so well, I don’t see how all this is ever going to end.  Will we hear His answer?  It won’t be broadcast over the PA system.  It won’t issue forth from the nightly news.  But if we listen, we’ll hear that still small voice saying, hush my child, don’t be afraid.  I’m still with you.  Just take one day at a time, one choice at a time.  Trust Me to guide you on these small steps.  You will get through this, not by yourself, but you and Me together.  In the words of Max Lucado, “It won’t be painless.  It won’t be quick.  But God will use this mess for good.  In the meantime, don’t be foolish or naïve.  But don’t despair either.  With God’s help you will get through this.”*

Times of tribulation are nothing new.  Listen to Moses, speaking to the Israelites, “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”  Deuteronomy 31:8   God’s message has not changed.

So hang on, my friend.  Reach for the hand of God.  He will hold you firmly in his grasp with unconditional love today and each day of your journey.

Judy

*You Will Get Through This, Max Lucado, p. 1