The Lifetime Guarantee

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 46:4

I wouldn’t mind a few more grey (gray!) hairs for the ones I’ve lost! The desert up there has been pretty barren for a while and is likely to spread. But this promise is the most comforting of all—a lifetime guarantee to end all guarantees! I am only one of millions that can vouch for the truth of these words.

For the life of me, I cannot understand those who refuse the companionship and succour of the One who is the source of the life we have. Why go through life without the security He brings? And why face eternity without Him? It just doesn’t make sense to reject the only one who has the desire, but also the power to fulfill that promise.

After all, as Ann reminded me, He is the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” He is sovereign over all the events of our lives. Isn’t it reasonable to trust Him for our present and future? If God has a purpose for the whole of history, He can be trusted for our minimal slice of time.

I am so glad I joined my life with His as a child and maintained that union throughout life. I admit, the relationship has sometimes been one sided. Fortunately, He sees the desire of our hearts when our actions don’t always reflect it. No wonder my heart is so often “lost in wonder, love and praise.”

Have You Noticed the Light?

See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Isaiah 60:2

Have you ever noticed the opposing characteristics of light and darkness? Light penetrates and repels darkness, which retreats before it. Light dispels and scatters darkness, and darkness cannot overcome it. Have you ever watched the dark of night recoil westward before a cloudless sunrise? Light displaces, replaces darkness, but darkness cannot respond in kind.

You are probably aware that Scripture uses light and darkness to symbolize truth and falsehood. Today’s text uses “thick darkness” to symbolize the prison of lies propagated by the evil one. Can you imagine a world without Christianity? Judaism would be a fading faith and Islam unthought of; it is an aberrant offshoot of the Bible. Would the world be atheist, animist, or drifting in the mysticism of the east?

Perhaps the whole world would be Satanist, seeking truth in the occult, chicken entrails, or the stars. Where would you be, what would be your position in life, would your family still be intact? What would be your view of life, or hope for the future? Where would you gain an ethical view of life? What would be your first priorities?

Eventually, fabrications about this life and the next cannot stand against the truth, as darkness cannot exist in lit space. We may live in a culture of confusion as the devil attempts to oppose the truth, but truth establishes itself as the Gospel continues to redeem society and the men and women that populate it.

Discovery of truth leads to those “aha” moments when the “light goes on.” When has that happened for you?