I Belong to God

By Margaret Carbaugh

Fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do something new; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43: 1,18-19 

When I was a little girl, I lost my buckskin coat. Where is it? Where is my buckskin coat? It was missing. Someone must have found my coat and taken it to the church office, waiting for me to redeem it about a year later. I asked my mother to stitch my name into the lining. I told myself this coat is MINE: I won’t lose it again.

I will not lie and say I understood my baptism at age 7. Like the coat, I  had been lost but was redeemed. I belonged to God. I understood, sort of. Now I am 70. Like that coat, I have misplaced myself a few times, but I know who I belong to because HE stitched HIS name into my heart when He redeemed me. 

Gracious God, I thank you for all the times I felt abandoned or lost in the wilderness experiences of my life, and you found me, redeemed me, and reminded me that I am yours. Amen 

Margaret