HE IS…Holding All Things Together
Most mornings I wake up in a panic. Life feels so fragile, like it’s being held together with tape or string. This is one of the aftershocks of being left by my husband. When he left, life shattered, and the cracks—while patched and healing—still feel like they could come undone at any moment. Tenuous finances, single parenting, our future, all the “what ifs” threaten my heart.
My first thought so often is:
How on earth am I going to hold ALL THE THINGS together? It’s just too much. It all feels so shaky. When I cast my eyes on ALL THE THINGS I literally start to sink—into depression, despair and fear. So much fear.
When my husband left I scribbled these words on our chalkboard:
He is before ALL THINGS and in Him ALL THINGS hold together.
Colossians 1:17
Those words literally became my lifeline. In time, I could breathe them in and out because they were so engraved on my heart. They became like a pair of well worn jeans—you know the comfy ones that feel more like pjs? Those words became everything to me.
Jesus is literally holding ALL THINGS together. He is holding all of creation together “by His powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3). “He gives life and breath to all” (Acts 17:25). He is sovereign over governments and kingdoms (Romans 13:1).
And while all of those truths are amazing to think about, what I need to know when I wake up in a panic is that Jesus can even hold me together—because as ridiculous as it sounds, that somehow feels more difficult than holding the universe together. He can hold my broken heart together. He can hold our tenuous finances together. He can hold our future together.
Jesus is before it all. That means He is in the front of all of it. He is there before us. He is leading as a kind and gentle Shepherd. And He is holding ALL THE THINGS, all of them, together.
That changes everything, doesn’t it? He has you. He will not let go. You are in His loving grip, held, literally, together. May our hearts rest from panic as we reflect on our GOD WHO HOLDS ALL THINGS TOGETHER.