Your Faithfulness Reaches to the Skies

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep.

~ Psalm 36:5-6 (NIV)

Thank you, dear friends, for allowing me to process some of the crazy life I’ve lived in Germany for the past four years {Miss last week’s story? Check it out here.} This Californian, so accustomed to sunny skies and beach weather, spent the last couple of years in Berlin, where winters are freezing and dark most of the day! 

In California, I lived in a home, with a big grassy yard… but when we moved to Berlin, housing was difficult to find. We ended up in a tiny apartment (they call it a flat). It was on the 4^th floor. It was over 125 years old. We heard it was the “servant’s quarters” a hundred years ago. It was old and quirky and had loud, creaky floors. The kitchen sink was the size of a shoebox, and our family of four shared just one bathroom. There was no yard, only a loud and busy street below us. 

But, I loved,
loved,
loved 
the windows. 

They weren’t normal windows, they were massive. Because we were on the top floor of the apartment, our ceiling was the roof. Our walls were diagonal, and our windows opened horizontally, almost like a huge sunroof. They let me see the sky. 

Berlin gets dark, very dark in winter. The sun rises late in the morning (between 8:00-9:00 AM) and it sets around 3:00 PM…So, when we rode our bikes to school – it was dark! And when we rode home from school – it was also dark. It was so bizarre and different for me! 

But I learned about the sun and moon like never before. Every morning, I got to see the sunrise. Every evening, I marveled at the sunset – especially those final moments where the last bit of sun disappears. I noticed how the earth rotated and how the sun rose over different houses or chimneys during different months. 

But one thing didn’t change – that fact that it rose and set every day. I felt like it was a painting in the sky, done by God, just for me. It rose and set…

Every day.
Just like God – 
Faithful. 

In those moments, I was reminded, as Psalm 36 says, “Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.” During winter, during coldness, during covid, when the world shut down, when we were stuck inside that tiny apartment for months and months and months…even then, not for a moment, did God’s faithfulness end. It is new every morning. Great is His faithfulness!

Additional Scripture:

Read all of Lamentations 3 and get the context for this incredible verse:

• “Yet there is one ray of hope: his compassion never ends. It is only the Lord’s mercies that have kept us from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his loving-kindness begins afresh each day.” (The Living Bible)

Reflection Questions:

• What reminds you that God is faithful? Is there a time of day or a special place that reminds you of His faithfulness?
• What has the last year or two taught you about the faithfulness of God?
• When was the last time you stopped and acknowledged God’s faithfulness?

Worship Songs:

Take a moment to listen to this powerful song (maybe during sunrise or sunset?!). Let the words remind you of God’s faithfulness. You are not forsaken…not for a moment!

Sing this hymn about the faithfulness of God, which has been sung for generations.

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