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Hanging on Nothing

Have you ever felt like you had nothing left to give? Maybe you are caring for an elderly parent, or fighting for your marriage. Perhaps work has been extra demanding, or you are dealing with failing health. 


When busyness turns emotionally and spiritually draining, we are met with the end of ourselves.  To be truly depleted takes some recovery time and help. We all need self-care in our daily lives, but recuperation requires another level of tending. 


In times of utter exhaustion, I am comforted by Job 26:7, "God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing." (NLT)


The chapter is an elegant praise and worth reading but also revelatory for its day. Job is believed to have lived right before or about the time of Abraham, and the concept of the earth suspended in space was only widely accepted about 1670, as in about 350 years ago. 


In ancient times, many believed the earth was supported by elephants standing on a large sea turtle. More intellectual minds, like Aristotle, believed the earth, moon, and sun were fixed to the surface of solid, transparent spheres, with each sphere nested within another sphere and the outermost sphere holding the stars.


But Job, a man truly at the end of himself, understood and praised God for being the Divine Creator and ultimate supporter of His creation.


Last week, we enjoyed the second of two great American eclipses within seven years. As I peered through my black polymer glasses, at the tiny moon obscuring the huge sun, I remembered we are all on a wild ride through the universe on a big rock. Sometimes feeling small is connecting to astrological truth. 


God uses small things to portray His glory. The moon is four hundred times smaller than the sun, but because the sun is four hundred times further away, the moon can overshadow our view of the sun. 


Amazing, isn't it?


If you feel like you are holding on by a thread, let go! God is holding you, whether you realize it or not. So why not fall into His embrace? 


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