...but we know how the minutes fly out into the dark trees and vanish...and we know how the weeks walk into the shadows at midday...at the thought of the months I reach for your hand...~W.S. Merwin (From The Solstice)

Sometimes I dislike time. Want things to stay the same. No change. Yet that is not reality. So I think about what is true. God doesn't change. Oh, God, I ask you to be the comfort I need in this shifting world, in all the fluctuations. The unexpected. The uncertain. I thirst for your endurance, your backbone. Someone stopped me on my walk and said, "I want to be like you one day." I wondered what they saw, there in the evening light, sweat running down my back, wearing a baseball cap, mascara smudged beneath my eyes. If they only knew how weary my emotions are--moth eaten, shaky, vulnerable. I am weak, Lord, my fear of the future attempting to blot out the incense of your Spirit. Oh, God, how do you see me?

Inside my heart, I heard His comforting voice. All is well. You can rest in Me. My strength is your joy and your inheritance, my wisdom abundant. Do not fear. Remember that the task of not losing heart is energized by Me. This work is fueled by Me. Keep trusting Me to guide you--to empower you to walk in mercy, love and forgiveness. I give you My peace in exhange for the anxiety and uncertainty you feel. It is okay to be vulnerable with Me. You are safe. Hold my hand as I walk with you through the woods of time. There is a bench for us today.

Oh, God, it is a relief to be loved by you, the One who never leaves, the One who draws near and walks with me. Holds my hand. Sits on the bench and listens to me. The One who sees my heart. The good Father. The One who lights up the darkness. The One who consented to come to this world--to be human like me--yet knew no sin. God in the flesh. Your work finished for me on the cross. Your resurrection my resurrection.

Therefore we do not lose heart. But though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.~II Cor. 4:16-18.