Till We Are Home

When it all breaks down, when life seems to crumble before your eyes, as if the mountains fall right into the sea, where do you turn? What do you hold onto? Who do you look to?

Chances are we all will face calamity to one degree or another, if we have not already. Maybe you heard the word ‘cancer’ while sitting in the doctor’s office. Maybe you opened your mailbox to find the final foreclosure notice from the bank. Maybe you held your stillborn child in the delivery room wondering what could have been. 

In those moments, when it seems as if everything good in your life completely falls apart and you wonder if you’ll ever smile again, what could possibly help in those moments? Let alone the days, weeks, months, maybe years to come? 

A Preacher once said life is vanity and a striving after the wind (Ecc 2:17). He refers here to the fleeting nature of life and that we will never catch (finding our satisfaction in) the worldly things we chase. In the end, he concludes that only our pursuit of the eternal and everlasting One will satisfy. 

In our grief and in the times when life seems to fall apart, we truly only have One to cling to. We find in those moments that what we thought we held dear and of ultimate value will not hold us fast, but indeed truly fades away. We find our anchor in this life by clinging to Christ alone and being satisfied in Him alone.

So, what did God give us as at least one tool to help us find Him as our anchor in times of calamity?

His promises in the Bible. In these promises, God gives help so we may hold onto Him as our anchor when the winds and seas roar. One particular verse the Lord used in the aftermath of losing our youngest daughter comes from Psalm 73 which reads, “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.” (Ps 73:28)

I like the NASB 95 version better because of the clarity it brings to define what truly is our good – it’s the nearness of God. We also hear in Ps 34:18, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Pairing these two verses together, it becomes clear: the Lord promises His children that He is near to us in our brokenheartedness. And that nearness is our good.

Our good is not in our circumstances. 

Our good is not a clean bill of health.

Our good is not financial stability or prosperity.

Our good is not going to come from the things of this world, no matter how good those gifts are.

No, our good is the nearness of God. He is near to us when we are broken in our sin. He is near to us in our loneliness. He is near to us in our sickness. And He is near to us when we weep over lost loved ones.

The very nearness of God, through Jesus Christ, breaks the power of despair and comforts the sorrowful heart.

God does not intend that the ups and downs of circumstances will dictate our life. Nor shall a love for the fleeting things of this world characterize our satisfaction. We are not to strive after a wind that can never be caught. But, our God means for us to find our refuge in Him, to see that His nearness is truly our only good. And oh, how good it is!

So, may we cling to the promises of God in his precious Word when those mountains crumble in the sea and find our good – our only good – in His nearness…

Till we are home…