“Abandonment is a literal distortion of God’s very life within the life of his creation.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – May 6, 2023
God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him,
“‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
my flesh also will dwell in hope.
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ Acts 2:24-28, ESV
In one way or another, we have all felt the pain and disorientation of abandonment. I hope and pray this is not a severe or central part of your story, yet I know that for many reading these words, that is simply not the case. Perhaps as a young child, you had to stumble your way toward adulthood without one or even both of your parents. Or, you may have been in desperate need of a wise and trustworthy guide to help you in the early years of your career or in the most formative years of parenting, yet had to find your way forward in isolation as people you wanted to trust and lean on proved to be untrustworthy and unable to love as you needed them to love.
When we struggle with feeling abandoned, in ways great and small, it hardens our hearts and callouses our spirits. As creatures made in the image of a communal God, abandonment is a literal distortion of God’s very life within the life of his creation. Abandonment rejects the other. God moves toward the other in love.
And when we are tempted to view God’s love in disembodied or abstract ways, we are time and time again invited to return to the power of the empty tomb. As we are reminded in Acts 2, when it looked as though Christ may have abandoned us to the grave, his resurrection proved that “it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24). And so, in light of the power of God displayed in Christ’s victory, Peter now reads the words of Psalm 16 in an entirely new light: “I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken” (Acts 2:25, quoting Psalm 16:8).
If you’ve had to navigate seasons of abandonment in your life, or are in the midst of it today, cling to this great promise of Scripture. God is with you, so you are never truly alone. And like the psalmist of old, he is willing and able to make you “full of gladness” through the gift of his presence. Christ is risen and will never die again!
Prayer
Father, heal the sorrows of abandonment that we carry by the power of your presence, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
Take time to prayerfully reflect upon feelings of abandonment that you carry within you, and invite Jesus to join you in that place.
Related Reading
Deuteronomy 31:8; Psalm 30:3; Psalm 49:15
Worship Resource
Red Rocks Worship: Never Leave
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