Our Carrier

I don’t know that we consider this image much when we think of God, but it comes up fairly frequently in the Bible, and it is easily one of my favorites: God is our carrier.

We have already encountered this image in talking about God as our Father. Deuteronomy 1:32 says, “the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son.” In His role as our heavenly dad, God carries us.

This motif is picked up in the shepherding imagery, too. When the prophet Isaiah describes God as a Shepherd, he says this: “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young” (Isaiah 40:11).

Later, when Isaiah looks back at the history of Israel, he realizes the only way they got from here to there was because God had carried them. He writes, “I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love…in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:7, 9b). If they were anything, it was because God had carried them.

Our redemption is also described in these terms. When Isaiah is speaking of the coming Messiah, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, he concludes, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4). The Lord has not just carried us in the good days but has also picked up our sorrows and sadness.

And so, when your strength fails, when fatigue sets in, when you can go no farther, put your hope and your trust in your Carrier, and pray with the Psalmist, “Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever” (Psalm 28:9).

Amen.

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