To What Shall I Cling?

I spent the morning watching the squirrels.  I sat at the table, looking out at the dark, grey sky.  Out the window, trees are many and bare.  Winter has taken over.  I watch four squirrels prance from branch to branch, tree to tree.  They jump and the tree bends crazy down and springs back and forth a diving board released.  And they cling hard with those small claws.  They never fall.  They cling hard and they know it will hold them.

This morning as I sat, I thought the lesson was about jumping, risk-taking.  It still may be.  But after this afternoon of heartbreak story after heartbreak story, it seems the lesson is more about the branch these little guys cling to.  Few are the branches that are firm, sturdy and unmovable.  Many are the branches that are small, thin and swaying.  Yet no branch has failed them.  Their little life hangs upside down clinging hard to the branch that they know will hold them.  It springs hard, up, down.  They cling hard.  It holds them.

He who is greater will hold us and not fail if we cling desperate to Him.

The earth quakes, the mountains crumble.  Pieces of our lives, they crumble, they break, they hurt.

As I sit now, the squirrels are gone and sad news, it seems it's invaded so many beloved's lives.  I play piano because somehow there my heart can fully express.  I play and after minutes an old hymn comes out.  His gift and reminder to me.  "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.  I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus' name.  On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.  All other ground is sinking sand.  When darkness seems to veil His face I rest on His unchanging grace.  In every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil.  His oath, His covenant and blood support me in the 'whelming flood.  When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.  On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.  All other ground is sinking sand."

He then pours this song in my heart.  A reminder of His deep, His unfailing love.  "He is jealous for me.  Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.  When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory.  I realize just how beautiful You are and how great Your affections are for me.  Oh, how He loves us, oh.  Oh, how He loves us, how He loves us all."

Not confident declarations now.  More humble realizations of where my hope rests, where my small claws shall cling to.  Soft revelations of His deep, undying love for me that will catch me and hold me every single time I cling to Him and the world rocks around me.