MOLLY AND ME – NEVER APART AGAIN

I’ve recently returned from a five-day visit to my family in Johannesburg. Just as much as it was a blessing to be with them and to meet my six-week-old great granddaughter, it was severely traumatic for Molly.

I told her many times that I would be away for five days. Unfortunately, our level of understanding didn’t accommodate such intricate information. Instead, as when my friend and I make our short trip to buy our Sunday roast, she expected my return within an hour.

For five days, I was missing. She did not know where I was, and she could not find me. She lived through those days, tenderly cared for by a loving substitute mother, in the company of her best furry friends but, at the same time, so alone.

Then the moment came when she heard my voice…

Molly hailed my return with ecstatic joy. Her wriggling dachshund body and violently-wagging tail told me that she was delighted to have me home. She could not have told me more visibly that she was pleased to see me.

I assured my little dog that I would never leave again!

Before His departure via the cross, Jesus told His disciples that He was going away. Unlike Molly, they understood the ominous words He spoke but, at the same time, they had no idea what He meant by “going away” or where He was going.

“There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?… And you know the way to where I am going.” “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
John 14:2, 4-5 NLT

We are also, like Molly waiting for our Beloved’s return. We sometimes feel lonely and abandoned. We are busy with His work but feel the pain of His absence and, yet…

Unlike my absence from Molly, Jesus is with us always and even more. By His Spirit, He is in us. We cannot feel or hear Him, but He speaks in ways we can understand. His love and peace steady us in life’s storms. His Word guides in the darkness. His presence surrounds and protects us in a dangerous world.

Molly needed to see me and hear me to know I was here. We know the presence of Jesus by faith in His promises. He said He was going away but, He also promised us a representative exactly like Himself to be with us forever.

Do you know His presence? Take heart. He is Yahweh Shamma… The God who is there!

“And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20 NLT