Sometimes it would be sitting in a comfortable chair in the living room. Sometimes it would be on the porch swing during a rainstorm, with my coat wrapped around us both. Many times during their lives, I have held my girls one at a time and told them stories of what I did with them when they were small. I hold them in my lap and whisper in their ears about how I would cuddle them, how I would hold them tight during a storm, how I would love them soooo much, how I would kiss the top of their heads one, two, three, four, five times.
I still do it. Why? To remind them that my love for them is a lifelong choice that started before they were born and will never stop. To remind them that they have a history of love from me. To remind them that my love for them is a constant that they can count on no matter what happens in my life or theirs.
…you whom I have upheld since you were conceived,
and have carried since your birth.
…I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 46:3, 4
Our Heavenly Father wants to do the same thing for us. He identifies Himself by reminding us of what He does and has done for us. He continually reminds us that He made us, that He carried us when we were babies, that he will sustain us. The word “sustain” means to support, hold, bear us from below, keep us going. He will be our Hero and pull us out of trouble.
Father, I claim this promise today. Hold me, lift me. Help me to trust You more today. Allow me to rest easy knowing that you are bearing me up from below and I don’t need to carry my whole weight. Amen.