On Being Gray



The Faithfulness of God

I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn gray.  I have made you, and I will carry you; I will bear and reassure you. (Isaiah 46:4)

Life is long and hard.  Especially when you are aligned with God.

For Jesus, his “life” was only about three years long.  The life of his ministry.  The life of his walking God into the world.

There were no gray hairs on his head the day he died.

But there are gray hairs on my head.  Mostly white.

Gray and white.

I find it a jarring idea that all along God has been carrying me.  Rescuing me.

I tend more to see him as the hand that pushed me into the trouble in the first place.

That he has to “rescue” me once I’m drowning in that trouble that he created is a turn-about that I don’t seem to be able to do in terms of me.

I look, instead, at Daniel and his three friends.  And how being true to their allegiance to God got them into all sorts of trouble.

Then, when they really did need rescue, God was there, reaching out his hand to pull them out of the fire.

Literally.

It’s an interesting dynamic to apply to God: be there for me and I will be there for you.

With the most glaring exception being Jesus.
His sacrifice most sacred.

So as I stand again at the edge of what looks like a puddle but is, no doubt, a bottomless abyss of grief and trouble, I can know to my bones, that when I am lost in the dark, God will be there with his arm to guide me out again.

I can know this because of my gray (and white) hair.

That still lies on my head.

In spite of all that I have been through.

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