I'll Never Leave You

The rain dripped from the heavens, each drop laden with icy water that made the young boy's skin shiver, but he seemed completely unaware.

He was lost in a world of his own while kicking up his feet to stir the drenched, golden yellow and red leaves. The sidewalks were layer with the clothes of now naked elms, oaks and chestnut trees. Autumn had come to New England. And his lungs could sense the change. As an asthmatic, the seasonal change meant breathing came in gasps and wheezes. Sometimes he could only whisper a few words to God while trying to catch his breath. The pain in his lower ribs would exhaust him from the laborious efforts to drink in more air.

For now his only thought was getting home from school and out of his wet clothes.

He was aware that he was not alone. God was walking beside him. At least that is what he understood from his mother who daily read the Bible and prayed before going off to school. He liked the verse she read to him one morning. God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5b NIV).

Of course he read the stories of David, Jonah, Samuel and Abraham. These characters filled his imagination of a God who walked with people, even visited them to do wonderful things. A God who stayed and never left them.

Perhaps the school psychologist thought it was strange to see a young boy separated from the busy crowd in the playground. A young boy who seem to stare up at the sky as if waiting for someone to appear. Then of course there was this noticeable and even audible conversation he was quite happy to have by himself. The boy seem content to be alone. On second thought, he didn't act as if was by himself but rather with someone else.

Many years later before graduating from high school the young man added this inscription under his year book photo. I will never leave you or forsake you.".

And as the years rolled on, when there was terrible rejection, confusion and darkness the man held onto the promise that God would never, never leave him. Even after he had forsaken God for other things and places and people God still visited him and would not relent, but walked with him. Until finally the man grasped His hand once again.

One day an autumn will come, closing the years of this man's life. A time he will take the hand of a God who from the start was with him, and with a final breath, lead him into His eternal home.

The little boy finally reached home, out of the rain of life sorrows, into his Father's house!