A few nights ago I had a nightmare. My five-year-old daughter fell into deep water. I treaded on the surface of the water, while my daughter sank further and further out of my reach. Frozen by a sense of powerlessness, I panicked. Each second she spent under water was one second closer to her death. I cried out for help, waiting for a lifesaver.
Then, the dream abruptly ended as I sat bolt upright in my bed. Attempting to work through the problem, I realized that the powerlessness that fell over me paralleled the helplessness that has gripped my soul recently. Though I desire to rescue everyone around me from the evil in the world, I can’t. From untreatable cancer to painfully broken relationships, the people I love are out of my arm’s reach. I want to pray diseases away and offer insight that encourages people to put an end to their bitterness, but all my efforts seem futile.
As these thoughts filled my mind, I almost audibly heard God ask, “Do you trust me, Rebecca?”
“Yes, but…”
“Do you trust me?” God gently repeated.
Gradually, scenes of Eden surfaced in my mind. At the moment when Adam and Eve didn’t trust God, all seemed lost. Even though they had to leave the garden, God clothed them—His precious children—and gave them the knowledge of the need to be rescued from the sin that now reigned over the earth. The clock was ticking, though. Every second was critical because all of humanity was subjected to the consequences of evil—sickness, pain, brokenness, death.
At a divinely appointed time in history, however, God came to earth as a tiny baby, extending His mighty arm to humanity. He is the one and only Rescuer. He is the message of hope to us, the helpless. He is the rock of strength to us, the weak. He is the breath of life to us, the weary.
Today, I praise God, the One in whom I can trust to restore the sick, redeem the broken, and save the lost!
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my Savior; you save me from violence.
2 Samuel 22:2-3