or beyond the chasm  . . .

sometimes you don’t come to a cliff, the cliff comes to you –  sometimes you don’t step off the cliff into the chasm, the cliff disappears beneath your feet and you are in the chasm . . .

you are careful to stay on the path, but the path becomes a cliff and the cliff becomes a chasm  . . .  and you are free falling

you never signed up to go bungee jumping, you never even packed a parachute . . .

yet here you are, free falling through this unknown, unexpected chasm;  your cries echoing around you in the silence  . . .

you don’t know where they are landing, you don’t know where you will land  . . .

you wonder if anyone can hear you from the chasm, you wonder what awaits you at the bottom  . . .

you wonder if your chasm even has a bottom?  . . .   and then  . . .

you realize that Someone has you by the hand  . . .

Someone has heard you,  Someone is with you  . . .

“For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.”   (Isaiah 41:13)

“But now, this is what the Lord says – ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are Mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.’ ”  (Isaiah 43:1-2)   . . .

and when I am free falling through the chasm You are with me; You catch me with Your strong right hand, You carry me.  You are with me in the falling even as You are preparing the place where You know I will land   . . .

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him”    (1 Corinthians 2:9)

I called out to You from my chasm and You came  . . .

“In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.  From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears.    . . .   He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters.”  or a deep never-ending chasm  (Psalm 18:6 & 16)

There will be more cliffs and chasms in my path as I continue following after Jesus. But this I know,  “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack (cliff and chasm)  and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom.  (where He is preparing a place for me to land)  To Him be glory for ever and ever.  Amen.”  (2 Timothy 4:18)

It is my Heavenly Father who “redeems my life from the pit or the chasm and crowns me with love and compassion,”   (Psalm 103:4)

No matter how fast or how far I am falling, I have this assurance – “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.”  (John 10:27-30)

And that’s right where I want to be, chasm or no chasm, being held secure in my Heavenly Father’s hands.  “For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.  In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.  The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.”  (Psalm 95:3-5)

Those are the hands I want holding me, there is no where I can go that is beyond their redemptive reach.  For that I am truly grateful.

“Reach down Your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters,”   (Psalm 144:7)   And that’s just what God did.  He saw my chasm coming and prepared the way ahead of me even as He walked with me (or free fell with me as the case may be) through it.

“Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He answers him from His holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand.  Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but I trust in the name of the Lord my God.”  (Psalm 20:6-7)

sincerely,        Grace Day