Faithfulness

I embody the faithfulness of God.

The fact I am still breathing shows his faithfulness. On one level, I (and we) all deserve to have God give up on us, punish us as the rebels we are. But he is faithful. On a personal level, each day as a gift from him shows his faithfulness.

Physically bending on my knees, consuming the bread and wine, embodies the amazing fact that I can pray, I can have hope, I can have bold access to the Father. All bold manifestations of his faithfulness. In the Garden, God walked with man. Once again, once amazingly again, my daily walk in the desert of this world can be accompanied by his walking with me. Each step of his next to mine posits a refreshing, radiating new life. Green seeps from his feet, springs from his footstep, transforming the desert. I walk in green pastures in this world of stinging sand.

My God-given mission and purpose declares the faithfulness of God. In the very moment of the cataclysmic catastrophe of the fall, God’s faithfulness is shown in a promise to restore the world—through a seed. A physical promise. An embodied hope.

After the despairing picture of the Tower of Babel, the climax of the depravity of man painted in Genesis 1-11, faithfulness breaks through once again in one man, Abram (Genesis 12:1-13; 15; 17).

After the hopeless four hundred years of fierce, draining oppression of slavery of an insignificant people group, faithfulness glimmers once again in the election of a people (Exodus; Deuteronomy).

During and after the excruciating and bewildering exile with heart-searching cries, faithfulness is revealed in the prophets who embody the promises of God.

After four hundred years of brass heavens, of the silence of God, crushing in its emptiness and nothingness, faithfulness is embodied in the person of Christ.

After the glorious ascension, in the pondering of what-now after mind-boggling, eschatological in-breaking, faithfulness is proclaimed in the body of the Church.

I, as part of Christ in union with him, as part of his body the Church, am to be his medium of faithfulness. Physical faithfulness. The light that still shines from the hill. He has chosen to use humanity as his means to restore the cosmos to his original creative purpose. He has chosen to use his creatures to be his medium of faithfulness, restoring us as image bearers to take dominion of the world so that once again his glory covers the earth as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14).

Breathe in—he is faithful. Breathe out—show the world his faithfulness. Who is equal to such a task? But he is faithful—to me and in me and through me, for his glory, from his faithful character, from his devoted eternality. He wraps his faithfulness around me, secure, so secure. And this eternal seed shines forth, each moment. Each breath.

“For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness” (Psalm 26:3).

 “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10).

“I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness” (Psalm 89:1-2).