“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6 NIV)
What goes up must come down. This is basic reality of life. Flip the coin and you’ll know who goes first in a second or two. Pitch the ball in the air and pay attention to the flight path, else you could end up with a knot on your head.
The opposite is also true in many ways: What goes down must come up. Runners know this reality. Downhill feels good, so enjoy it now… You’ll be going uphill soon enough.
“What goes down must come up” is a pesky truth in other areas of life as well. Try as we may to cover up our emotional immaturities, our debt problems, our impulsiveness, our relational issues, they resist being buried alive. They exhibit a remarkable will to live. Who has not had trouble that kept following them around, no matter how many attempts have been made to leave them behind?
How refreshing then that divine love is more determined to stick with us than even the pain or trouble that dogs us the most!
With God as our shepherd, not only has our past been redeemed. Not only is our present permeated with encounter with the living Christ. Even our future belongs to God: “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.”
This puts our present in perspective. We can’t outrun God’s goodness and love. They just keep following us. Day after day after day. Praise God.
Prayer: God, I am grateful for your divine pursuit of me. Grant me a desire to be yours to match your determination to have me. Amen.
Guy M Williams 