It must be admitted up front that Jack and I liked receiving birthday cards as much for the checks taped inside as for the content of the cards. I’m just being honest. We saw the signatures, thought of the hands that wrote them and the people who loved us. And then we made a point to go to the bank and cash them in.
Those checks weren’t the actual money, obviously, but they were the promise of it. As soon as we submitted the proper paperwork to the nice teller behind the window, we were given an envelope full of the real deal to put to immediate use.
The checks were never meant to sit stockpiled on our dressers, drifting higher and higher over the years, unused, gathering dust. They were meant to be cashed in for the reality.
Steven Curtis Chapman’s CD, “Beauty Will Rise”, which rose out of the ashes of his own family’s experience with grief, says it this way:
I’ve dropped anchor in Your promises
and I’m hanging on
I mentioned before how I feel about roller coasters. Even merry-go-rounds make me queasy. Ditto for boat rides. Give me solid ground any day. However, I will be the first to concede if I HAVE to be on a boat, I want it to have an anchor, so if storms come, we can be grounded. That way, though I may be rocked on the surface, I won’t be smashed on the shore.
This morning I thought about another of God’s promises: “Fear not…When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…Do not be afraid, for I am with you.” (Isaiah 43:1-5) He promises His company no matter where we are or what we are going through.
Steven Curtis Chapman names some of those ways:
Jesus Will Meet You There
When you think you’ve hit the bottom
and the bottom gives way
and you fall into a darkness
no words can explain
You don’t know how you’ll make it out alive
Jesus will meet you there.
And when the doctor says, “I’m sorry, we don’t know what else to do”
and you’re looking at your family
wondering how they’ll make it through
whatever road this life brings you down
Jesus will meet you there.
He knows the way to wherever you are
He knows the way to the depths of your heart
He knows the way ’cause He’s already been where you’re going
Jesus will meet you there.
When the jury says “guilty”
and the prison doors close
The one you love says nothing
Just packs up and goes
The sunlight comes and your world’s still dark
Jesus will meet you there.
When you failed again
and all the second chances have been used
and the heavy weight of guilt and shame
is crushing down on you
and all you have is one last cry for help
Jesus will meet you there.
He knows the way to wherever you are
He knows the way to the depths of your heart
He knows the way ’cause He’s already been where you’re going.
When you realize the dreams you had
for your child won’t come true
and when the phone rings
in the middle of the night with tragic news
Whatever valley you must walk through
Jesus will meet you there.
He will meet you there.
Jesus will meet you there.
That’s a promise to take to the bank. His presence the present.