How I Saw Him Faithful

"You are faithful, you are faithful, you are faithful!"

I began writing a morning prayer the same way I have often these days, declaring the faithfulness of God. God didn't need any reminding of His faithfulness--I did. And I do, every day, especially on this new year's edge.

Because the coming year holds a lot of questions.

In a few weeks, I will find out if I got accepted to my number one school. If I did, I have decisions to make: Do I attend there now, or save money and start at my number two school? And that's another question: Where am I gonna get all this money? My current job pays well for a first job, but not enough to pay for a year of school. Do I switch? Do I take out a loan? And if I take out a loan, how will I pay it off? What happens if I get married soon after college? How will I support a family? So.many.questions.

It occurred to me the other day that the people of Israel had questions, too. Theirs were different from mine, though, more along the lines of "How will we live?" When Pharaoh and his armies came after them at the shores of the Red Sea, they wondered, "How will we escape?" When they approached the bitter waters of Marah, they grumbled, "How will we quench our thirst?" When they stood outside the walls of Jericho, they cried, "How will we defeat them?" While they waited for a Messiah, they pondered, "How will He come?"

Sometimes, the wonder of these stories is lost on us, because we know. We know that God parts the Red Sea. We know that He makes the waters sweet. We know the walls come tumbling down.

We know Jesus comes, dies, and rises again.

We know, and so we brush by each story as if it happens everyday. But we have to remember: The Israelites had no idea the answers to these questions. They didn't expect God to part the Red Sea, or make the water sweet, or bring Jericho's walls down, or send a Baby to a manger and a Man to a cross to save them from their sins. They weren't familiar with how this all played out. They didn't grow up hearing these stories. They lived them, one by one, each for the first time.

It reminds me of my own stories.

Once the stories had been lived, though, the Israelites were called to retell them. "One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts." (Psalm 145:4 ESV) Grandfathers sat youngsters down on knees and told how the waters shot high and they walked through without stepping in a puddle. Mothers stood next to daughters at stoves and reminded them how Moses cut a branch and tossed it in and they drank their fill. How often do we do that? How often do we remind each other what God has done?

Not enough, if you're like me.

So I wrote out the rest of the prayer, thanking God for all that He has done this year. I thanked Him for a job, for sustaining me through those first weeks and months of worry and bringing me to a place where I know what I'm doing.

I thanked Him for the graduation, for somehow helping me finish on schedule. I thanked Him for keeping my siblings and I alive on the day of the graduation party, when I totaled the car and complicated things just a bit.

I thanked Him for the girls who invited me to prom and made my dream come true.

I thanked Him for the sabbatical, for those two months in Colorado Springs that were so not in my plan and yet so very wonderful. I thanked Him for the love I came home to.

I thanked Him for the girls who decided to start a Bible study.

I thanked Him for the Christmas play that stretched me thin, and for sustaining me through it.

I thanked Him for a year full of His faithfulness, a life full of stories that remind me that He is good and He will be again. And again. And again. As I stand on this new year's edge, full of questions, I know it to be true: He is faithful, He is faithful, He is faithful!

And as the new year begins, I pray you know it, too.