Covered

Covered

For a season, and thankfully not a long one, I felt uncharacteristically vulnerable and a bit adrift. I couldn’t trace my unease to any specific source, but a series of random challenges had left me isolated and alone.

Many reassuring, familiar things were changing, and I couldn’t see what might take their place. “Faith,” says the writer of Hebrews, “shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see” (11:1). How encouraging that evidence must be, especially when so little can be seen.

I wasn’t at all sure that my forced march of faith was making me stronger. I never expected to be protected from the bumps and bruises of challenge and change, but still I longed for someone to have my back. Then a dear friend called and suggested lunch. “Dear friend” doesn’t tell the half—she very nearly raised me in the faith and has been a source of wisdom and encouragement for more than half my life. Her own life had taken a sad and scary turn just a few short years before, but she emerged strong and sweet and lovelier than ever.

After a meal and a life-giving conversation, she pulled a gift bag from her side of the booth and placed it on the table. “I have something for you,” she said. “When Bill died, a friend gave me this, and now I want you to have it.” I pulled out a crocheted prayer shawl, still carrying its rumpled tag. “I used to put this around me and cry,” she said, “until I couldn’t cry anymore.” Then she looked at me through tears and said, “I have your back. Even if we don’t talk for weeks, and I don’t see you, I have your back. I always will. Wrap yourself up in this and remember you are held, you are loved.”

That shawl had hugged my friend’s shoulders in hours of heaviness, and in the Father’s care she is more beautiful for it. Now it has covered my lap as I read and write, and it has been draped about me as I pray and cry. A tangible reminder that I am loved and held.

I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

John 14:27