A few weeks ago, Molly, my nine-year-old dachshund, stepped out of line. I scolded her soundly and lectured her on what not to do. She took my rebuke in good grace but, that night, as she lay on my bed…looking at me earnestly with her soft, expressive, brown eyes, I read the words her eyes spoke to me. “Mama,” she said, “if you abandon me, I have no one!”
O, how my heart broke. How true! I am her whole world. I do everything for her. I anticipate her needs. I treat her ailments, sometimes at great cost. I feed her with the best food. I take her for walks. I sacrifice for her. Without me, she is lost. She would die.
What a message for me as a child of God! Without Jesus, I am nothing. I am lost. I would die. “Jesus, if you abandon me, I have no one!”
Before I left my home of eight years to relocate, going into the unknown, I told the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I will lean my whole weight on you.” …and I have. The first few months of settling into my new home have been a bumpy ride. Without Jesus, I might have given up…but I have leant on Him…and He has not failed me.
I have His promise, spoken to His disciples before He left them to go to the cross.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
John 14:18 NIV
“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5
There is no disaster, no worry or concern big enough to separate me from His love.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:38-39 NIV
Jesus sent His Spirit to take His place…not just with but in me.
So, just as I reassured Molly that night, “My Babygirl, as long as I am alive, I will never abandon you,” so, Jesus reassures me that, as long as He is alive, He will never abandon His child…and that means forever.