TO CARRY OR BE CARRIED

 

I'm once again joining the writers of Five Minute Friday, where we are given a theme word each Friday, and we write for just five minutes on that theme, unedited, and resist the urge to tidy it up. 

This week's theme is CARRY.

“Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel,

Who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb:

Even to your old age, I am He, and even to grey hairs I will carry you!

I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.

“To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal and compare Me, that we should be alike?

They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver on the scales;

They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god; they prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.

They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it and set it in its place, and it stands;

From its place it shall not move.

Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer nor save him out of his trouble."

“Remember this, and show yourselves men; recall to mind, O you transgressors.

Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and there is none like Me................... "    Isa 46:3-9

There are two distinct opposites in this passage.  There's a God who has carried His children from the womb, and desires to carry them to their old age, who has made, borne and carried them already, and who wants to deliver them.   But He almost has to beg His children to be carried, because they don't want that kind of relationship.

In the second part of this passage, we see His children making something they can carry themselves, crafted by them, much more manageable than a God who wants to carry them.   Being carried requires trust and compliance and surrender.

Their God asks them 'to whom will you liken Me?'   No one, no thing can be likened to Him in His love and capacity to bear and carry and deliver, and yet we settle for so much less.  We settle for something we can carry.

It begs the question of me:   Will I let Him carry me, or will I insist on being the carrier?   Until I can't.  Until I end up in a ditch, of my own making, or at least something I was complicit with.  

And then I need to be carried and held till I know who I am, whose I am, and Who He is - so much more than I gave Him credit for - I AM.   

Perhaps it takes nearly a lifetime to run out of my own strength to carry, before I allow myself to be carried by the One who longs to carry me on His shoulders, like He carried me in His heart, at Gethsemane and Golgotha and carries me even now in heaven, preparing a place for me.   

It brings me to those famous lines of this song from my childhood, performed by the very talented band, Celtic Worship.   

What a Friend we have in Jesus, 

All our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

Everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit,

O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry

Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?

Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged,

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful

Who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness,

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,

Cumbered with a load of care?

Precious Saviour, still our refuge -

Take it to the Lord in prayer;

Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?

Take it to the Lord in prayer;

In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,

Thou wilt find a solace there.