The end of this chapter...

About 10 months ago...I had just arrived in Tanzania and I was sitting down to try and create this blog.  I couldn't think of a name for it and I was asking God to give me one.  Naming my blog felt like a big deal to me and I wanted the name to mean something.  I was drinking out of a coffee cup and was just sitting staring at it and reading the verse on it over and over and...that's where the name of my blog came from.

Isaiah 43:1
"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine."

I love this verse - it reminds me of some very important facts.
1) God has redeemed me completely
2) He has summoned me, by name...me - specifically
3) I belong to him and he loves me!

That verse has special meaning to me now :)  But, I'll be honest... I never remembered the "address" of the verse.  I forgot that it was in Isaiah for sure... I only remembered what it meant to me.

But then about a week and half ago I was talking to God and I asked him for a verse.  All I got was 432... so I looked at page 432 of my Bible.  That wasn't it.  But I know that 432 was right... So I just started looking at each book of the Bible...4th chapter...and looking for verse 32.  Nothing... so I started looking at chapter 43, verse 2.  As soon as I got to Isaiah 43:2... I knew I'd found it.



Isaiah 43:2
"When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.  When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.  When you walk through the fires of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.

So I took a picture with my phone, so that I could read this verse any time - even when I wasn't at home with my Bible. I've read it, I don't know how many times... and yesterday I decided I wanted to find an image to set as the lock screen on my phone.  So I started searching online and one of the first images that came up had Isaiah 43:1-2 on it.  Until that moment...I had no clue that the verse I had been looking at for over a week was the continuation of the one that God had given me almost a year ago.

I am still mulling over the fact that God gave me a verse when I first arrived here, and then gave me the continuation of it right before I am leaving for the U.S.  It is a reminder for me of those three facts contained in verse 1...and a reminder for me that God is always thinking of me.

It feels sort of like those verses are the first and last pages of a chapter... so much has happened between those two verses...those two pages.  This chapter is so full!  My life has been changed forever; I have been changed forever.

I can't wait to see how the next year unfolds!  God is good :)