Steadfast

“God’s steadfast love never ceases; God’s mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning: great is your faithfulness.” – Lamentations 3:22-23

We get our devotional assignments long before publication, so I’m writing this  three weeks before the election. The day it’s published we’ll know who won, but now, as I mess with syntax and synonyms, I’m clueless.

I don’t know if it was a squeaker, a landslide, or something in between. I don’t know if the pollsters were dead on or if Nate Silver is driving a cab today, scratching his head. I don’t know if the loser conceded gracefully or threw a tantrum, nor if the winner delivered an inspiring speech or a cringe-worthy crow.

I don’t know if you stayed up late watching the returns or turned in early with a stiff drink and a trashy book. I don’t know if you’re planning a happy bash for tonight or packing your trunk for Canada or Fiji or wherever you swore you’d go if the worst occurred.

I don’t know how happily, sadly, or indifferently this day has dawned for you or me or our country. But I do know this: In ways that really count, this post-election day, momentous as it is, is no different from any other. Like every day, it’s a gift from God, a new and pregnant mercy. Like every day, it’s a precious clearing in which to meet again the Steadiness that undergirds each change and chance, and in that meeting to believe again that no matter what befalls us or our fragile democracy, God will not fail to hold us night and morning. God will not fail to will and work the good of all creation. God will not fail to be God. God will not fail.

Prayer

Unceasing are your mercies, O God, new every morning. Great is your faithfulness!

About the Author
Mary Luti is Interim Senior Pastor, Wellesley Village Church, Wellesley, Massachusetts.