NEVERTHELESS

Friday was my granddaughter Rachel's wedding.  After days of non-stop craziness and finishing up at the very last minute, everything turned out beautiful.  Five vases of wispy greens (intermingled among white candles and tiny white string lights) meandered down each of the thirty-five long black-clad tables set up for both wedding and reception.   An arbor covered with white tulle and graced by five elegant lanterns stood as sentinel on the stage over the lifetime vows of two awesome people committed to loving the Lord with all their hearts while spending a lifetime together doing the work of the Kingdom.  Everything progressed wonderfully, and, at the end of the night, generously considerate guests choosing to join in  cleanup shortened what would have been an all-night job to a few hours.  And the wedding day was over... well thought out by my precious granddaughter and new son-in-law, and well executed.

However... (there's always a "however", eventually, to all of life here before Christ returns...) the next morning I was feeling kind of down, thinking (of all things) how my outfit for the wedding compared quite unfavorably to all of the other elegant ones flitting about the room.  It was actually an old dress and jacket resurrected from a daughter's long-ago wedding (!!) - because hours of shopping had not produced an acceptable outfit, and time simply ran out.

But God...  in His great love and patience with me...  took me that morning to Psalm 73:21-28 [Amplified].  For my heart was grieved, embittered, and in a state of ferment...  Wow, He hit it right-on!  So foolish, stupid, and brutish was I, and ignorant.  I was like a beast before You.  And now we're talking about the reality of what we not only WERE but, really, still ARE, compared to our Lord, so consistently gentle and considerate with us. 

NEVERTHELESS...  I am continually with You.  You do hold my right hand.  Always, through every kind of day, our Best Friend not only walks with us, but actually holds our hand - intimate, personal relationship.  You will guide me with Your counsel..  Oh, what a blessing, to be guided by the Ancient of Days, each minute, in each problem situation, in each bit of life - if we but ask; the reality of who we really are beneath all the cover-up does not stop His forever-love!  And afterward You receive me to honor and glory.  No matter that we are foolish, stupid, brutish, ignorant, decades out of style, so broken in so many ways ... He lays honor on our head.

Whom have I in heaven but You?  I have no delight or desire on earth beside You.  That is where our Lord wants us - where everything else pales and falls flat beside our relationship with Him and with Who He is!  All else eventually "blows away in the wind,"  for what seems good and desirable is here today and gone - in a moment - EXCEPT THE LOVER OF OUR SOULS!  My flesh and my heart may fail (our bodies don't look or act the way they used to), but GOD IS the Rock and Firm Strength of my heart and my portion... FOREVER!  No one else's opinions, nothing, really matters - only our Lord.  And He will never fail us.  We will let people down.  Others will let us down. But He will never fail us.  It is good for me to draw near to God;  I have put my trust in the Lord God, and made HIM my refuge (not in "what people think of us", what we can do, our financial security, our health, the success of a surgery or business, our accomplishments, the achievement of our goals), that I may tell of all Your works.  As we fellowship with Him each day, listen to Him, and lay our trust in Him for that day and what the future holds, we are then able to glorify Him with that specific day. 

Lord, place our focus on trusting You and Your way for our lives, on loving You with all our heart, mind, and soul.  In those times or seasons or even lifetimes, of tough, tough days, may we nevertheless glorify You as we do the work You've laid out for each of us... until, as Your bride, we see You face to face - the Lover of our Souls Who laid down Your life to dress us in the wedding gown of Your Own righteousness.