This world, as beautiful as it is, holds a lot of brokenness inside. If you search in the dark corners of this world, there are little pockets of joy and rays of sunlight that remind us of the wonders God has given us in this world. However, when we step out of our homes and into the world, we see the horrors that sin has brought into the world, mangled with the mass destruction that we, as flawed and fatal humans have brought into the world. The world is our battlefield. Every day we put on our armor and step out into the unknown. We know we are entering a broken world, and we do so with the confidence that our Lord will be by our side no matter what troubling times come our way. Our hearts have been broken over and over again by the mistakes we've made and the sadness we've suffered and the obstacles we've had to endure. We've been crawling through mud and dirt and thistles and thorns, with cuts and scrapes on our hearts, looking for an escape. We stop crawling and we lay down, crying out, "Help me. I can't do this alone."

And then we see Him. Our Father. Our heavenly Father. He picks us up, and He dusts off the dirt and cleans us up. He binds our emotional and mental wounds and tells us they will heal over time. He holds us close to His chest. We can hear His heart beating with the excitement of seeing us again. He smiles with joy and love. We feel the warm fuzzies in heart and the butterflies in our stomach because we know we are home. We are finally home.

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This is an illustration of what it's like to wander this world without God on our side. We all struggle in different ways, but it's the same as everyone else in this world. We come to points where we say we can do things alone, and we start to walk away from God. The walking gets harder and we start to crawl. The crawling becomes nothing as we lay still, our bodies and hearts breaking, unable to take the weight of the world any longer. When we cry out to God, He comes to our rescue every time. Sometimes He says, "Just wait, I know what I'm doing. It's going to be okay. You will see my glory through your pain soon." It hurts, but we know that no matter through our suffering or through our joy, God's name can and will be glorified,

I hope this illustration brings comfort in those dark times, but also reassuring in good times. This life is not meant to stay still. This life is a roller coaster of emotions and events, but we are told to stay content through it all. Hold on to the promise that God will be by our side through life.