Beholding On...

Twenty-twenty-one.

Spoken out loud, it sounds like "2020 won."

Perhaps 2020 was the most recent year which won the award for testing our resources,

a year which won our true attention-

a virtual 20/20 vision of multiple moments.

Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18

And in those moments we witnessed not only how we've been traveling along in this life,

but we witnessed collision.

The collision of

our rigidity and our flexibility,

our disconnect and our connections,

our limitations and our creativity,

our reality and our expectations,

our ease and our dis-ease.

Each collison tests metal.

What gives? What remains?

And every collision tests our mettle.

What gives? What remains?

Each collision needs a witness.

(Can I get a witness?)

And every collision of our human resources

needs a with-ness.

A presence.

Something, anything to remind us

that we are not alone...

Something, anything to remind us

that we can carry on...

SomeOne, AnyOne to tell us

that we just need to hold on.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

And do not return there without watering the earth

And making it bear and sprout,

And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;

It will not return to Me empty,

Without accomplishing what I desire,

And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11

With or without.

But how do we avoid returning empty

when we believe we've exhausted our resources,

when the collision leaves us feeling "totaled," beyond repair, a wreck?

With or without.

We remember the constant questions, day-by-day:

Are we with or without...

our masks?

toilet paper?

hand sanitizer?

a classroom?

a job?

a home?

a loved one?

a celebration?

an income?

our health?

our faith?

hope?

And the questions continue.

With our without.

It was our reminder just recently,

how the 400 years of time between the old and new testament had people wondering

whether the prophets from Jonah to Malachi

were simply shouting into the wind something about God-with-us,

or whether something or someOne would eventually be revealed.

And lo and behold, an unassuming babe found by shepherds,

Emmanuel (literally, God-with-us)

arrived to promise

that we would never be alone again and

that we would never be without hope again.

We were promised His With-Ness.

It helps to know that God/Goodness is always with us for good.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God,

to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:29

But working together for good...all of this with-or-without-ness?

One study Bible explains,

"This verse does not affirm that all things are good

or that all things work together for good for all people.

Rather - the great promise

is that God will overrule and work even through the tragedies

caused by sin's presence in the world

to accomplish His purposes in the lives of those who love Him

and who have responded to His call." The Woman's Study Bible, NKJV.

The birth precedes the epiphany.

And it's interesting that the Epiphany in Christ's life can refer to both

the time in which He was "realized" as God-in-flesh by the visiting wisemen -

and also the time in which He was baptized later in life

to give witness that His life was God's.

"As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water.

At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God

descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said,

"This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased." Matthew 3:16-17

Do we ever think about how well-pleased God is to be with us?

Do we wonder about how God wishes

for our lives to simply be

lives of witness?

Living witnesses?

Living with-nesses to God and to others?

The page after Jesus's baptism/epiphany?

It's none other than Jesus's temptation in the wildernerness.

It's the time of Christ facing all of the "withouts" one could imagine -

tested and tried and nearly tricked

into believing that He might not really be one with God...

I think my Christmas cactus had its own epiphany.

It seemed to be holding back.

Just when I thought nothing was going to happen,

pink buds emerged from the tips of waxy greens.

A huge blossom is beckoning other buds, realizing what's within.

With our without.

It's important to acknowledge times of confusion, anger and frustration

in this wilderness that is life.

Yet another Bible verse speaks directly about "holding back our anger"

to prevent harming another.

The word for "hold" is also the word for "soothe" or "still."

Be still and know. Psalm 46:10

Be held and know.

Be held by God and experience God's with-ness -

through all of the withs-and-withouts in life.

Behold!

Be-Held!

Can we Be some witnesses?