Readings:
Jeremiah 20:10-13
Psalm 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35
Romans 5:12-15
Matthew 10:26-33

I have sat in the darkness many times, marveling at all the hairs on my child’s head. I have done it simply as they fall asleep. I have done it as hospital machines beep in the background. I have done it while comforting them through a bad dream or mid-winter cough that won’t go away. I have prayed for their healing, hoped for their futures, and begged for the guidance and grace to be with them along the way. I am one among many who has held their creation in their arms, whispering in the darkness.

Do we see ourselves held by God in the same way? Do we really believe in our bones that God has counted the hairs on our heads? That God whispers to us in the darkness what we need to know and what the world needs to hear? Whether we are the one holding or the one being held, do we look for God in those quiet moments?

There is so much to fear in the world. To bear witness to the suffering of our world, of people made poor, stolen away, wrongly accused, locked up and torn from those they love for the sake of greed and lust for power, it is almost too much to hold if we hold it all. This is the time in which we need to be most reminded that God has always been with us, as Jeremiah shows us. God is not only a champion by our side, but counting the hairs on our heads, whispering to us in our moments of doubt and suffering. Jesus tells us our hairs are counted, that our falls and fails are known.

What might it look like if we took seriously that God is on our side? That God knows the tiniest corners of each one of us? In times of fear, how might we stand differently if we trusted in God’s love for us and lived from that place of love instead of from a place of fear? If we listen for God’s voice whispering to us in the darkness, what courage might we have to proclaim it from the housetops?

Ellen Romer Niemiec,
Director of Enrollment Management