Coming and Going

The difference in coming and going is staying.  I remember back to the days of my first appointment when one of the guys in the Zoar Church had a tractor accident.  Somehow he fell off the tractor and was run over by those big rear wheels.  Both of his legs were broken above the knees.  Honestly, I do not remember the length of time he was hospitalized, but it was for months and months as he worked through recovery and therapy.  As his pastor I visited him often in the hospital.  He was my first time of filling that role.  I remember leaving him feeling guilt that I could come and go, but he had to stay.  What had happened to him could have happened to me, but it happened to him.  I am not sure back then I truly understood how unpredictable and fragile life can be.

 

When young it is not easy to see an end to what seems to be stretching out there in the distance in a forever manner.  The Word tells us to "number our days," and "to make the most of the time."  The young find it an impossible task.  The old find it as natural as waking up in the morning and being grateful that both legs will carry you away from the bed from which you slept and woke up.  Most of us have the experience of staying not by choice, but because it is thrust upon us.  It is not easy for us to stand in the middle of circumstances filled only with uncertainties, things that underscore the fragile nature of life, and things that cause you to know there is no such thing in this life as control.

 

Really, the only thing in this life that is certain is God.  He had His staying moment with us long centuries ago.  He knows about what it is to be as human as we are and to go out of this life into the darkness of death.  When we have to stay, He stays with us.  He is not just the God of those who come and go and talk about Him in the process.  He is the God who stays with us.