You Are Known

Something that I have been thinking about since I wrote my last post. Cara history lesson ahead. I didn’t work outside the home after my eldest was born. I tell this story a lot, but my plan, when I found out I was pregnant, was to take time after the birth and go back to work. Not only that, I was not going to home school. We were only going to have one child.

“The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”
—Proverbs 16:9, ESV

Haha. I stayed home with not only my eldest, but the three subsequent children to follow. I began homeschooling when the eldest was of school age.

Then, when my children were older, I needed to get a job to help supplement income. The church we were attending hired me. People knew me there. Then, I was hired by two women for a doctor’s office who went to my church. People knew me. So, when the doctor, eight years later, retired, I was interviewing with places that didn’t know me. Now I work for a place filled with people that do not know me.

However, lets jump back to meeting Noah for the very first time. We didn’t know each other. I remember holding that little guy in my arms and the Lord spoke to me very clearly. This love, this protection, this feeling exploding in your heart? Compares nothing to the love I have for you, daughter. God has always known me.

I sit in that memory, remembering that hospital bed, remembering his peace, and his presence. Friend, as we think through our lives, his presence is always with us, whether we acknowledge it or not.

When tragedy or disaster hits our lives, so often the question that arises is where was God in this?

No greater example to me in recent memory of hearing that question than 9/11. I have been reading, listening, and sitting with this time for many days now. Story after story that never have been told or I’ve never heard. Maybe it’s the heroism. Maybe it’s the last moments. Maybe it’s the waiting for loved ones to come home. Maybe it’s the remembering where I was…I’m not sure. I think the towers falling and knowing all the lives lost as we watched. I can’t grasp it, nobody can. I shared this with friends yesterday and my friend, Holly, pointed out that when this happened we were young moms. We were in the thick of surviving toddlers and infants. Now there is space to sit and listen and absorb to some extent.

This I do know, the Lord was there too.

Which brings me to the song, “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us” by Stuart Townsend. There is a line, “…the Father turned his face away as wounds which mar the chosen one, bring many sons to glory…” I heard either a sermon or read an article on this and I wanted to dig in further here. For me, I began thinking about the points made by this source (which I need to find) and I resonate.

One, in Psalm 22:

1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning? 2 My God, I cry by day, but You do not answer, by night, yet I have no rest.The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Ps 22:1–2.

Now read the end of the Psalm:

24 For He has not despised or detested the torment of the afflicted. He did not hide His face from him but listened when he cried to Him for help.The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Ps 22:24.

This is so important to remember about the Father! And the son! We are meant to know the whole Psalm, not just the verse Jesus quotes from the cross in agony. Jesus was never alone. He never suffered alone. In the garden, angels swooped in and cared for him.

18 Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), 2 Co 5:18–21.

The ministry of the cross was a partnership within the Trinity. The Father bringing all to himself through the cross of Jesus Christ. We are reconciled. We are ambassadors. We are called to tell others, you are not alone. God is with you. God is for you. God is good. Why?

Good Friday.

Just as God swooped into that little hospital room 27 years ago to remind his daughter of his love, I know that the Lord knows my next steps. Life is precious and life is short. For all of us, we do not know when the end will come, but we can know who will be with us through it all. Think about that with me.

You are known. You are loved. You are not alone, even in your darkest hour, in your last breath. We are held.