I might be the only one to find myself wrapped around the axle in worry. Wondering if God’s going to be able to pull this fan out of the fire. Thinking something got so messed up that it’s hard to imagine what scenario could ever bring it to a conclusion. Not that I doubt God can do it – but I seem to have more confidence when I can at least imagine what He might do.

That kind of thinking really limits my faith, though. It puts God’s possible solutions into my tiny box of things He might do. “Well if this happens, and that person does this thing, then that thing could happen over there.” It makes my mind think small – and when I’m in a state of worry, it’s hard to let my imagination go and just wait to see the amazing way the Lord can deal with it.

One such recent worry had me laying in bed in the middle of the night, staring at the ceiling. I was trying to manufacture ideas for how God might take action. I listed out all the things He’d have to do first, as if (ha) I were giving Him instructions on my plan. (I’m sure He was chuckling!) “So if that one step there doesn’t happen, things will fall apart, so I need to be praying that that thing happens.”

And then the Lord stepped in, and wrestled my attention from my mental hula hooping. “Who holds things together?”

What a question. So simple, and the answer was so obvious—I had to repent immediately at the realization that I had set aside my faith (again) to make my own plans, instead of relying on the One who created everything and holds it all together.

For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.

Colossians 1: 16-20

My Bible journaling page was a many-layered watercolor, painted during a deeply meditative time. I became keenly aware of each stroke, knowing each and every one was already the Lord’s; when I splattered, He was aware of where each drop would land. He was guiding my hands, my eyes, my art supplies, all things….and the creation is His.