The song runs
“I’m but a stranger here,
Heaven is my home.”
Meanwhile, I am here, often confused, bewildered, dismayed, or simply have the feeling of being forgotten.
The Psalmist knew that feeling too when he said, “I am a stranger in the earth, Oh, how I need a map.” And our God not only supplied the map, but He is present in my life each moment. I know that is true because he tells me it is. And He shows His presence by sending His Son to suffer and die in my stead. That means that the sin I do, and the sin I am born with, is paid in full. This is, as St. Paul says, “the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.
The Psalm describes God’s presence when he writes, "he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” Psalm 121 3.4.
So, when such moments come, when we feel all alone, left out, forgotten, we need to recall these promises. Or Jesus saying to His disciples when He gave them their final orders to “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen”. Matthew 28,19-20
So we can “run with patience the race that is set before us.” Hebrews 12,lb. Because we are in God’s hands, and “I Know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29,11.
So, I may be a stranger here, often beset and troubled by events and disasters, but I am in God’s hand always, and so “It is well with my soul”. And I am thankfully resting in His care.
GPD 6/9/11
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