I’m going to do something I don’t usually do. I’m going to rerun a piece from around this time last year, because I pulled it up while looking for something else, and felt strongly that someone might need to hear the truths tucked in these words. So, if this is for you today, please rest in it.

I started reading through the Chronological Bible yesterday (if you didn’t know, the Bible isn’t laid out chronologically, so reading through it in a timeline fashion can really help put the whole of it in perspective and help you understand how it fit within world historical events). Of course, I started in Genesis, because that’s the beginning, no matter how you slice it.

I was reading along about creation and how God would speak something into existence and it would be done. Over and over He would say “Let there be (water or land or sky…)” and it was followed up by this:

And it was so.

I spent the better part of the day with that four word phrase tumbling around in my head like clothes in a dryer. God said it and it was so. The end. If the Lord said it, commanded it, created it, stated it, could there be any other possible outcome?

Obviously, it wasn’t only the earth that was created. He created people. A man and a woman, ones that He knew would screw things up and cause a mess that would break the world He created. He knew that. Yet, He continued to create humans, over and over and over again, until it came to our parents, to you and me, to our own children. Most parents look into the faces of their new children and make statements of love to them. Promises are made, too, but in the midst of humanness and brokenness, though they’re meant from the deepest places, failure is inevitable in some way.

But you know what? If you feel unloved or failed by those around you, maybe even those who are supposed to love you the most, you have a God who won’t fail you. Who can’t. He has stated He will never leave you or abandon you, and promised that He will not forget you. He, who breathed life into you and created you with great purpose and for His eternal delight, can’t say something and not mean it. He can’t state it and it not happen. Be thankful, along with me, that He said He loves you…and it is SO.

“The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” Jeremiah 31:3 ESV

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” Isaiah 49:15 ESV

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”