Dependence

I was thinking about this topic a few days ago, and it's stuck with me.

We all depend on people. It's how we make it through life. When we are born, we depend on our mothers and fathers to care for us. When we are young children, we depend on our childhood friends to make us laugh. When we are teenagers, we depend on the love of someone else, to make us feel like we are worth it. When we are adults, we depend on the praise of others, to let us know that we are making it in this life. When we are elders, we depend on those around us to care for us.

My grandfather, Richard, is in a wheelchair. Ever since I was a little girl, that is how I've seen him. It doesn't make me love him any less, but I see the independence that he calls out for. He is dependent on his family to care for him. The simple things that I take for granted on any given day, he needs help doing. His meals are prepared for him, his clothes are laid out, certain precautions are taken. Yes, he is dependent, but his earlier years of independence push through.

Dependency is interwoven through the very fiber of our beings, even when we all try so hard to be independent.

Have you ever thought that maybe our dependence roots deeper than human interaction?

Isaiah 49:1 says, "Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name."

And Psalm 139:13 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."

We were created with a sense of dependency. God knew us before we were born. He knew the paths that we would take in life. He knew what parents we would be born to, what friends we would make and who we would marry.

But even with all of those interactions, there is one interaction that we have the CHOICE to make: our interaction and dependency on God.

There are many times in my life that I need someone to look up to, or there are times that I place my admiration in someone that has faults the same as I. Why put our hopes and dreams in something or someone that is as unstable as we are?

God wants us to depend on Him.

He is unchangeable. He is constant. His promises never fail. And more than that, because it is hard for us, as humans, to put our faith and trust in something that we can't see, God sent His son.

Christ became the proof that we needed. He opened the doors for us to come freely to God. We can be dependent on Him. We can lean on Him when we are weak and weary.

Matthew 11:28-30 -- "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Jesus assures us that we can place all of us onto Him; fears, failures, sins, burdens, guilt...whatever we face in this life. And He will be there.

Unfailing.

Immovable.

Steadfast.

So even when you want to be independent, and prove to the world that you don't need anyone else, dependency is never far behind. It runs in our veins.

Maybe our dependency is God's subtle calling card to us. It says, "You're looking for someone to depend on, and lift you to your feet when you are weak and have fallen. Here I am. Depend on me. Fall on me. I will never leave you or forsake you."

In your search for independence, will you depend on God?

Blessings,

A.