For Christmas a friend gave me a book by Ted Dekker called The Forgotten Way. It is rich with Scripture and meditations. Reading this morning and working through the study guide that accompanies, this question was asked…”When you see the Scripture that says that all things consist in Him and are held together by Him, how does that make you see yourself?”
Immediately, I saw myself held – cupped in His enrormous hand, sitting right in the palm of it…HELD.
What a comforting thought – to be held.
Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
As much as I think I understand this Scripture I also know I have no idea what it means. Our fininte minds cannot comprehend such things. But, oh, how I love the picture it creates in my mind – that He holds all things together. Such a comfort that is to me.
My eclipse of rejoicing, He holds
My heartbreak of devastating, He holds.
My numbness of disappointing, He holds.
My celebration of overcoming, He holds.
My confusion of circling, He holds.
My moment by moment of every second, He holds.
Psalm 139:8 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
Dekker asks, “Is there anywhere that God is not present, if He is indeed omnipresent? The trees are not God, but He clearly exists in them because He is everywhere. If Christ, as the Light of the world, is interwoven even on a subatomic level with matter, why does He seem so distant? Because we have been led to believe that He is. Much modern church passion is tied to a desire to find God or be close to God. But the psalmist realized that God is not hard to find. You can’t get away from the One who holds all things together.”
Ok…slow down and go back to that above quoted paragraph and read it again, take it and really sit in it for a minute.
Did you get it? Did you feel the shift? Did you sense the aha offered?
He is everywhere…the Light of the world interwoven…not hard to find…can’t get away from…the One who holds ALL things together. Those are some powerful statements – oh that we could really get it!!
To realize that we are held in every moment we experience.
To realize that He is near not distant.
To realize that He is the thread that holds the tapestry together.
To realize that every atom is infused with His presence.
Know this my sweet friend, no matter where you find yourself today – hovering in disappointment, gripped with grief, electric with joy, distraught in despair, permeated in peace, clumsy in curiosity, teetering on the edge of giving up, or dancing high upon the mountain top…wherever you find yourself…know this…YOU ARE HELD!
