Week 2 – Neither death nor life, neither the present nor the future

Have you ever stopped to consider the many versions of yourself that have existed throughout the years? It’s pretty wild to think about. Just think, that same you that used to lay in a crib, looking up at Grandma peering down at you, wondering if she ever considered trimming her nose hairs, is now sitting at a desk doing trigonometry, or taxes, or eating a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich. That same you that thought your first boyfriend would be the man you’d marry and always thought you’d grow up to be a circus clown, was and is, still you. 

You’ve most likely changed (or lost) your hair over the years. You probably wear a bigger pants size and you have most likely changed your likes and dislikes innumerable times. You’ve squeezed a lot of life into a relatively short time frame, no matter your age. But that person you used to be at any point in time, is still the person that you are now. Every version of you was undeniably just as you as, well, you. 

Now consider the fact that, whether you knew Him or not in 1st grade or 4th grade or 25th grade, God was with always there, with you, loving you throughout every version of yourself. As a matter of fact, your Heavenly Father was with you all the way back to your inception.

And then, He was there clapping and blowing airhorns when you came into this world like a cold and slimy reptile; He was with you when you got your first pair of Nike’s, when you lost your first tooth, and He will be there when you lose your very last tooth. He has been walking alongside you every. single. day. The Almighty kept watch over you as you lay on your favorite Star Wars bed sheets, smiled at the way you laughed when you jumped into a mountain of autumn leaves with your best friend, and His arm was looped in yours when you walked down the aisle into an uncertain future. God was there for all of it – dreaming alongside you, protecting you, calling you to Himself. He knew you like the back of his hand then, and he knows you like the back of his hand now.

 

Now skip to today’s version of you. You are still you. Consider that that same God is still with you. He’s still not tired of you. His affection for you is as stubbornly dedicated as it ever was. And someday, when you face death, can you guess who will be with you, then? Yes, God will be with you in death, too. He will be holding your hand, guiding you from this life into your eternal life in paradise with Him.

Nobody in your life has been with you so intimately and so constantly. Nobody else knows every version of you so intimately and thoroughly.

 

Our scripture says that neither death nor life and neither the present nor the future can separate us from God. Can you see, a little more personally now, what that means in light of the exercise we’ve just done? We’ve turned our mind’s eye to the past and we’ve looked to the present and on into the future. No matter which way we look, there God is. His presence is constant – from the moment of our inception until the day of our earthly death where we finally get to be with Jesus forever.

It’s easy to flippantly narrow down our Romans scripture to a trite idea that God will always loves us. But as you can see, it is so much deeper than that!

 

There is no one on this earth that is capable of God’s degree of intimacy with us in life. He is the air we breathe, the blood in our veins. And in death? Forget about it! Although death means separation from the things and people we love here on earth, it’s just the beginning of our eternal life with our Heaven Father. It is because God has conquered death with the death and resurrection of Jesus, that we are assured that we who love Him, will follow Him into eternal joy when our time on earth is over. 

 

We can only live in the present, though and Psalm 23 is a beautiful illustration of what it looks like to walk with our Heaven Father, in action and in truth, every day.  As you ponder the intimacy of Christ, read it slowly through the lens of his never-failing presence in our lives and how we have this beautiful opportunity to walk with Him every day. Pray this Psalm in light of the knowledge of his unfailing presence and love.