I’ll Carry You

Oftentimes I am shellacked by the tenderness of the Old Testament. Yes, I believe the Old Testament has some of the most tender portions of Scripture.

Like Isaiah 46:3-4
“Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob,
all the remnant of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth,
and have carried since you were born.
Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”

YHWH says to Israel, even through exile and captivity: I have carried you.

By this time, the Israelites were exiles for about 70 years. So literally some of them were born in exile, learned how to take their first steps in exile, and grew old with a full head of grey hairs in exile. Through all this God says: “I am the one who has carried you, sustained you.”

There is this intimacy YHWH has with Israel, like a parent-child relationship. You could be 7 months old or 70 years old, you’re still a child of God. There are these moments in the Old Testament where we see so clearly: a compassionate, nurturing, fatherly and motherly God.

This is the same God Jesus reveals in the New Testament, through his ministry and his parables.

The sculpture above is by the British artist Charlie Mackesy. It’s called The Return of the Prodigal Son. It’s about the prodigal story Jesus tells (Luke 15). And look at how the son just collapses into the father’s embrace. His arms hang limp. He’s so tired of wandering, so tired of bearing a burden. And the father catches him, comforts him, and carries him.

One of most heart-healing moments is when we collapse into someone’s embrace and just let the weight of all that we’ve been carrying fall on them. In this season if you’re like me, you sometimes just want to collapse because it’s exhausting to keep going during this pandemic. And you get tired of trying to live into these questions: When will this pandemic end? What is the right thing to do? How do we be disciples and the church in this season?

And I believe God’s invitation to some of us weary people right now may be:

Collapse. Rest. Surrender. Yield.
Return and fall into the strong and loving arms of God.

I love what St. Augustine says about the long race of being a disciple of Jesus:

“Oh, the twisted roads I walked. But look, you’re here, freeing us from our unhappy wandering, setting us firmly on your track, comforting us and saying, ‘Run the race! I’ll carry you! I’ll carry you clear to the end, and even at the end, I’ll carry you.’”

Tapestry Church, keep going. And watch how God will carry us. God will carry us clear to the end, and even at the end, God will carry us.

Michael Yang is the campus pastor of The Tapestry Nights
Image by Charlie Mackesy - "The Prodigal Son"