For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so, through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV)
For those of a certain generation, or who raised kids in the 1980s or 90s, you may be familiar with the Bill & Gloria Gaither song “I Am A Promise”, published in 1982. For those not familiar with the lyrics, the song begins, “I am a promise / I am a possibility / I am a promise with a capital ‘P’ / I can be anything / anything God wants me to be.” Recently, my mom was visiting to watch my 4-year-old and started singing this song to him, which of course led to endless rounds of “I Am A Promise” throughout the week and a flashback to my own childhood!
This song is definitely meant for kids, and in the version my smart speaker plays, kids are the ones singing it. But I started to wonder–when do we stop being promises? At what age do we move from possibilities in God’s eyes to reaching the end of the road and become all we will ever be? Is this song just a cheesy kid’s song, or in fact, is there some deeper truth to who we are in God’s eyes? Are we, as adults, still bundles of possibilities?
Yes! God has promised us this, and as 2 Corinthians reminds us, when he says ‘yes’, we can say ‘amen’.
There are two ways to answer this final question in the affirmative. I believe that Scripture testifies that no matter what our age, we can still be used for the glory of God. The first way to look at this is to think about our day-to-day lives. Each day is a promise from God that he is with us and his mercy and compassion are new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23). In fact, the very name that Isaiah prophesied for the Messiah, was Immanuel, God with us (Is. 7:14). And Jesus prayed and said that when he was gone, he would leave a Helper, the Holy Spirit, who will dwell in us and will always be with us (John 14:16). Thus, every moment of our day, we can be assured that God is with us. Each moment of each day is full of divine possibility.
At the same time, there is a broader, more cosmic principle at work. Allow me to reference another childhood song, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”, to remind us that God really does have all of creation in his divine and loving hands. He has all of history, beginning and end, yesterday and tomorrow, under his guidance. We come from many different theological traditions in the ACL and Divine Providence can be a tricky subject to broach. Yet, whether we believe in freewill or are devout 5-point TULIP Calvinists, the Bible speaks of a God who not only created the world but who also sustains and is present in creation.
Let these truths bring us hope that no matter our age, our job title, our marital status, our socioeconomic status, our intelligence, our appearance, or any other way the world may label us, we are all full of divine promise. Each moment it is possible for us to serve God in obedience. And through obedience, the Kingdom of Heaven may just break through. A regular reference appointment, lunch with a colleague, or a committee meeting, may break open with holy potential! If we are attuned to what God is doing around us and in us and through us, we may be surprised just how much we are promises of God, full of possibility.
All for the Glory of God. Amen.
Alec Ellis
Alec is the Web Technologies Librarian at Colorado Christian University. He has been an ACL member since 2001.