Day By Day

While I was in graduate school I met a couple that had been married for seven years and for all of those years had longed and prayed for a child. Disappointment after disappointment was encountered through those times. I heard the pain of brokenness as the couple described the growing hope of a pregnancy only to find themselves once again dismayed by the reality of yet another miscarriage. Perhaps, though, more memorable than the story of tears was the source and strength of hope that grew in their hearts through those times. I remember particularly the offering of a hymn, Day by Day, that taught their hearts to trust and to pray and to focus their affection on Christ. Of all the verses of that hymn, I have thought of two lines so frequently in the recent days.

As your days, your strength shall be in measure
This the pledge to me He has made.

These words have been teaching and training my heart. There are many things in this life that are so uncertain, but among the certain things is the promise of God that strength will always be given to meet my weakness in facing the day.

Perhaps, too, my heart is being trained to recognize that not only is strength given in measure, but joy is bestowed as well. In weakness, in sorrow, in waiting, in uncertainty, the promise of God is that strength and joy and patience and trust will always be given in measure.

Actually, “in measure” is a modest term because the more I learn to understand God’s love, the more I begin to realize that “in overflowing fullness” would best describe the outpouring of His goodness into our lives.

I think that God works in terms of bounty, not in terms of sufficiency. And I am sure that the couple that I knew in graduate school would agree. By the time of my graduation, they held a beautiful and healthy little boy in their arms.