Devotional.
Jesse is two, and at the moment he insists that one of us sits in the chair by his bed until he's asleep.
He doesn't want another story or more milk. He just wants one of us there.
If I try to leave before he's asleep, he notices.
He stands up in bed and shouts, "Chair! Chair! Chair!", getting more and more upset until I sit back down.
Some nights he's asleep in ten minutes. Other nights he isn't tired at all, and an hour later I'm still there in the dark, waiting to hear him snore.
Most evenings I don't mind. I'm happy to wait. I'll bring an audiobook and pop a headphone in and have some quiet time to myself.
But if I'm meant to be going out, or people are coming over, or there's a list of things I need to get done, I start edging toward the door.
I wait for his breathing to slow, stand up as carefully as I can, and try to get out without him hearing.
I love him, and I'm still trying to leave.
But God never does that.
He is never edging toward the door. He has nowhere else He needs to be and nothing more important waiting downstairs, and He isn't listening for the moment it's safe to slip out.
Hebrews 13:5 puts it like this: "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (NIV)
The writer is quoting a promise God first gave through Moses, when Moses himself was about to leave his people.
Moses couldn't go with them any further, but God went all the way.
So He isn't counting down until you settle.
He isn't waiting for you to drift off so He can get on with something else.
The nights that take an hour don't wear Him out, and you are never the thing standing between Him and somewhere He'd rather be.
He stays the whole night, every night. He never gets up to leave.
Maybe you're calling for Him tonight the way Jesse calls for that chair. Maybe you've stood up in the dark more than once, checking He's still there.
He is. He stayed all night, He'll be there when you wake up, and He isn't going anywhere, ever.
Prayer.
Lord, You are always with me, in every moment, every season, every circumstance, never absent, never distant, never on a break from being present in my life.
In the valley and on the mountain, in joy and in sorrow, in success and in failure, in my best moments and my worst, You are there.
Teach me to live with constant awareness of Your presence, to remember that I'm never alone even when I feel lonely, never abandoned even when I feel isolated.
Your presence isn't something I have to earn or maintain through good behavior, it's a promise You made, a covenant You keep, faithfulness that doesn't waver.
Help me draw courage from knowing You're always with me, to face hard things differently because I'm not facing them alone, to walk through darkness knowing You're right beside me.
Remind me that yesterday, today, and tomorrow, You've never left me and never will, that this presence is as permanent as You are.
Give me comfort in the reality that You are always with me, not watching from a distance but walking beside me, present in every moment I breathe.
Let me rest in this truth today, that You are always with me, and may that reality change how I face everything, knowing I'm never, ever alone.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
