Bill Knott's GraceNotes: REASSURING RHYTHMS (January 22, 2021)

When do we offer reassuring words? Whenever there is fear, perplexity or pain. Our words rebuild the vital bridge connecting pain to hope, to peace, to continuity.

 

“Don’t worry, little one,” we soothe. “Daddy’s going to be right here until you go to sleep.”

 

“You’ll be just fine,” we tell the anxious student on the night before the test. “You’ve studied hard: you know this stuff.”

 

“You’re not alone,” we whisper to a saddened soul who cannot see beyond the terrible calamity of now.

 

In these, we faintly echo all the Father’s reassurances. He both anticipates our fear and moves to heal it with deep promises of connectedness and peace. In one short psalm, we hear the same phrase 26 amazing times: “His steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1). The rhythm of His reassurance rolls through history, time, and all our fears until the message of sustaining grace becomes embedded in our souls: “His steadfast love endures forever.”

 

The arms that hold us in our grief are here: “His steadfast love endures forever.” When we are lonely, we recall: “His steadfast love endures forever.” When conflicts, large and small, besiege our lives, and we can hardly summon hope—“His steadfast love endures forever.”

 

Grace is the story of God’s endless and unbroken love. At every turn; in every hurt; when joy arrives; when hope renews—“His steadfast love endures forever.”

 

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott