God's faithfulness never leaves us
The decorations came off the tree yesterday. But the tree isn't down because I can't leave the Christmas celebration. It is because the ornaments tell such a story it takes me a while to read “the book.”
My life history is in those decorations — from childhood to grandparenting. They don't come off the tree easily.
I've chosen “faithful” for my 2024 word. I'm looking for how it is expressed in the Bible — my go-to book for life. And how I can bear the fruit of faithfulness. God's faithfulness to me through the years speaks in the Christmas ornaments — and their stories.
That faithfulness won't be stored out of sight in a bin with a lid until the “season comes round again," but I wonder if that's how I see it — or maybe “don't see it” — when I'm not as focused as in those contemplative hours before the tree. Faithfulness hardly ever makes the front page.
Why is that? Because it sounds dull and boring? Same old, same old.
As our light is gaining — a month out now from the shortest day — I am reminded of a biblical passage that calls the sun and moon God's “faithful witnesses” in the sky. They are there, doing what they do, seen or not. I can rely on them, even behind the clouds.
Faithfulness implies steadiness in a world that's all over the place. I recently pulled up a decade-old video about brothers born two years apart. The older one was perfectly fine, but the other had spastic cerebral palsy and could not walk or talk. Conner was only 7 years old when he decided to include his beloved younger brother in Nashville's Kids Triathlon in 2011. They came in last, but they crossed the finish together.
When Conner saw how happy it made his brother they continued to compete in more triathlons with the help of special equipment enabling Conner to push, pull, and carry his brother in swimming, cycling, and running. In 2012, they were the Sports Illustrated SportsKids of the Year. In his tearful acceptance, Conner said, “A lot of people think that we would never be able to do something like this, but we can always do anything.”
Just a “single-digit” kid, but was there ever a more faithful big brother? Faithfulness sticks by you — in all circumstances. Faithfulness doesn't give up. Faithfulness is there. In this story, faithfulness not only made the front page, it made the cover.
Would that have mattered to these brothers? Would it have changed anything for them if they hadn't? No. They were a team day in and day out. Their last name is Long — and they were in it for the long haul, whether others noticed or not.
God's faithfulness never leaves me. It is not enough to bring it out once a year, and see it on the Christmas tree or hear it in the Christ Child story. It's a daily companion — one that says together “we can always do anything.”