He knows what we are made of

Reflections on a season of willful faith

At the end of last week, the container we shipped from Malawi in February finally arrived in Fort Collins. The aftermath of bringing our old life into our new life, after having already established this new life for three months, has been “a lot” to say the least.

It has been chaotic. It has been healing. It has been stressful. It has been sad. It has been happy. It has been up. It has been down.

Like I said, it’s been a lot.

I do feel, however, that it marks an end of a season. It was almost exactly this time last year that the necessity of leaving our life in Malawi began to hit us. I don’t know that I will ever be able to tell the full extent of that story publicly, but as you can imagine, it was a season of disappointment and hurt.

Yet, despite it all, it has been a season of willful faith, fighting to remember who God truly is in the midst of the sorrow.

A couple of days ago, I read Psalm 103 in my morning devotions:

He redeems your life from the Pit;
He crowns you with faithful love and compassion.
He satisfies you with good things;
your youth is renewed like the eagle (Ps 103:4–5 CSB).

I don’t quite feel like my “youth is renewed” yet, but perhaps I am getting there. Otherwise, this psalm reminded me of who God has been over this past year and who he continues to be—the God who redeems, the God who crowns my little life with love, the God who delights to satisfy me with good things.

As the psalm continues, he is a God who is our Father:

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.
For he knows what we are made of,
remembering that we are dust (Ps 103:13–14).

Yes, we are dust. But our Father never forgets that, and he has compassion on us. He knows what we are made of.

And all God’s people said, “Amen.”