I Am with You Always

by John C. Westervelt

     As a young man I was in charge of life.  Now that I am old, life is in charge of me.  For example, I must take a blood pressure pill each morning to remain healthy.

     In Matthew 28:20, Jesus said, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Jesus understands my increased need at this juncture of life and makes Himself fully available.

     In John 14:16, Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.”  In his study Bible, Ryrie writes, “The Holy Spirit is called the Helper, or in Greek the Paraclete.  In the root of this word are the ideas of advising, exhorting, comforting, strengthening, interceding, and encouraging.”

     I sometimes think of Jesus as a companion of the Holy Spirit.  When I talk to Jesus, He is as close as the Holy Spirit.  When I need help getting to sleep, I invite Jesus to draw up a chair and stay beside my bed, and it is comforting.

     At times when I talk to Jesus, I like to imagine what He looked like while on earth as a man.  In a group of stories I wrote for Asbury’s Tidings several years ago about the people that met Jesus in His day, each person tells what Jesus looked like to him or her.  I can see Jesus through their eyes.  They saw a broad shouldered man with muscles strengthened by a lifetime of using carpenter tools.  His face was friendly.  His eyes were like ones I have seen occasionally on the face of a friend who focuses intently on my eyes as we talk.

     In Matthew 11:30, Jesus said, “For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”  Regularly, I visualize my shifting a burden from my shoulders to Jesus’ broad shoulders.  Sometimes my request is just for overnight.  When I am refreshed in the morning, I work on the problem again.  There are other concerns that I leave on His shoulders forever.

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