He is Our Certainty

My whole life I have held onto certainties to feel safe. I have been afraid of entering into relationships without guarantees because I would rather not have them at all then to know them and lose them.

Living with a constant underlying expectation of loss is an exhausting venture. Believe me, I know. I’ve been doing it most of my life. Until I didn’t want to live that way anymore. Until I realized that my expectations of loss were greater losses in and of themselves.

Girls, I have come to realize something.
There are no certainties which exist in this life apart from Jesus– none. Not in the things around us, in people, position, or relationships. And any certainties we believe we have are only illusions. Easily broken. Easily lost. Bringing devastation in their wake.

He is the only certainty in this life. He is our certainty.

This is our safe place. Our hiding place.

The place we come from.

Our rock. Our anchor. Our firm foundation.

The place where everything derives.

Think of a flower’s center where the seeds are, where life begins, where growth happens. The petals are the fragile, beautiful things which flow out from that inner sanctuary. The visible signs of his working in and through us, caring for us. A striking display of his goodness and greatness and splendor.

But fragile nonetheless.

So we root ourselves in him. As a flower roots itself in the ground. This is what nourishes us– giving us life. This is what keeps us from spinning off into chaos when the strong winds come. And they will.

But he is holding us still.

Everything begins and ends with him. What we often forget is that he is also in the middle– just as present, just as powerful, with purpose as our unique stories unfold. A living hope.

I realize it’s not about here. It’s about him.

It always was.

So I look around me and see something different. Something unexpected. I see hope. I see it in the little things I have forgotten to look for or even notice. I see it in the moments.

Every moment of your life is God’s will.

Every moment matters. It’s the small things that carry us forward. That count. It’s him living in us. Loving this world through us. What else is there but that?

I understand this in a new way, and I feel content. I feel calm and at rest. I know he’s enough for me. I know that I don’t need more than everything that he is and that he has made me to be. I know that his love alone completes me.

My hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25:5, ESV. I say this verse and mean it. I want to live its words. I want to breathe it in like balm. It is life to me.

And in doing so, I remember.