I Will Carry You—A New Year Meditation - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb: even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
Isaiah 46:3-4 NKJV

I Will Carry You—A New Year Meditation
Life has different seasons: infancy, youth, middle age, and old age. Each season has its own joys and challenges. William Shakespeare captured the reality of this contrast between youth and old age in verse:

Crabbed age and youth cannot live together:

Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care;

Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather;

Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare.

Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short;

Youth is nimble, age is lame;

Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold;

Youth is wild, and age is tame.

Whatever we may think of the bard's take on youth versus age, it remains true that time marches on. As we turn the page from the past year into the new year, no matter what season of life's many stages and conditions we find ourselves in, one thing does not change: God is faithful and abides with His own until the end of life.

Today's text predicts a time when the Babylonians would fall at the hands of the Persian army. The gods of Babylon, Bel and Nebo, would be carried into captivity on the backs of beasts of burden (Isa. 46:1-2). God is making a great contrast here: idols cannot carry us—they cannot even carry themselves (v. 7)! However, Jehovah will carry His people in every season; from birth to the gray hairs of old age: "I will carry you." Let us trust Him to carry us all the way!

-- Brian Reynolds