I'm still HIS

The other day I was listening to the song “I’m still Yours” by Kutless and it got me to thinking, the chorus especially.  The chorus says…

“If I lost it all
Would my hands stay lifted
To the God who gives and takes away?

If You take it all
This life You've given
Still my heart will sing to You”

I started thinking, would my hands really stay lifted?  I have had such an “easy” life so far, to have everything taken away from me would REALLY stretch me to the limits!  I have always had food on the table that I could eat (even if it wasn’t my favorite!), and parents that love me and will watch over me.  I have always had at least two sisters around to be with, friends close by to talk to and hang out with, and an amazing church family to interact with.  If that was all taken away from me, how would I really react?  Would I still look to the One who gave me my life for the guidance and wisdom that I always have (and always will) need?  Would my hands stay raised?

A little later, this was all still on my mind, but instead of thinking about this in my own life, I was thinking about the children that we work with.  So many of the children have already lost it all, and they’re not even teenagers yet!  These kids don’t know what it is like to have a table full of food, and more in the cupboards!!  They think of their parents as those that are supposed to be caring of them, but they go out, get drunk, and come home and beat these kids later.  They really don’t know who to trust in life, whether they will stay around and love them or turn their backs and reject them.  I find it amazing that many of these kids trust in a God that they can’t even see, and through it all, their hands do stay lifted!!

This morning, my dad and I were working at a medical clinic and a lady came in to see us.  She was in a wheelchair with kidney failure and five children to care for.  She couldn’t afford to pay for her blood tests, much less her dialysis, and in all reality, this lady was dying.  As I spent some time talking to her, I found out that only four of the children were her own, the other was an orphan that she took in because nobody else wanted her.  This lady’s house had burnt down a little while ago, and her husband was gone.  How would you really want to keep living?  But, in our conversations, she used the phrase “It’s only by the grace of God” several times.  Wow.  She has nearly nothing, and yet her hands are still raised?!  Wow. 

One of the later verses in the song has these lyrics…

“Even if You take it all away
You’ll never let me go
Take it all away
But I still know

That I'm Yours
I'm still Yours”

Woah.  Even if we seem to have nothing left on this earth, we still belong to our Heavenly Father, the one who gives and takes away.  The one who gave us life to live, a life to be used to glorify Him in everything.  No matter what the situation ends up being, we still belong to Him and He will NEVER let us go.  Never in a million years.  Never in an eternity.  Never ever ever. 

So, after chewing this over for a while and really thinking about it a lot, I have come to the conclusion that yes, in everything, my hands WILL stay lifted.  Whether the situation is bad, really bad, good, or amazing, my hands will stay lifted to the One who gives and takes away.  They will stay lifted to the God that I belong to, to the One that I always have belonged to and always will.  Will yours?