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No pit too deep.

Posted on by squishypancake19

The Hiding Place tells the true story of Betsie and Corrie Ten Boom, two Christian Dutch sisters who housed Jews during WW2. The book is written from Corrie’s perspective as she remembers the highs and lows of her life and how God held her in every moment.

Both Corrie and Betsie were incredible women of God, but Betise is a personal hero of mine.

The way she sees beauty in everything. Even when being tortured in a concentration camp. She suffered deeply, wore it honestly, and clung to everything God said in every moment. She took God literally and applied His goodness and promises to every place she ever found herself. There are three striking moments in the story from her life that have shaped the way I see God and the world.

1. Early in the war, during an air raid on Holland one night, Corrie went downstairs into the kitchen to talk to Betsie because she couldn’t sleep. When she went back upstairs after a short while, she cut her hand on her pillow and found a large shard of metal had flown through the window and pierced it. She ran back downstairs to Betsie and cried that if she hadn’t had trouble sleeping she would have been dead just then. Bestie calmed her and simply answered that there are no “if’s” in God’s world; the center of His will was the only safe place.

I’ve let that quote permeate me many times in moments of fear. I love that that moment happened quite early in the story: God intentionally using it to prepare them for what He was about to walk them though.

2. Later, they get arrested for helping the Jews and both sisters end up in prison in isolation for months in a filthy cell. They’re both very unwell during this time and suffer with a lot of trauma, however when being relocated from the prison to the first concentration camp, Corrie walks past Betsie’s open cell and sees that Bestie had cleaned and decorated the room with whatever she had (even making the filthy straw beds look homely). I was so struck by that image and how we’re called to carry peace and beauty into wherever God puts us. It doesn’t matter how difficult, filthy, or scary the situation is.

3. My third favourite moment is after Corrie and Betsie are living in their final concentration camp and the warehouse they’re kept in is infested with fleas. Corrie moans and cries about the fleas and the filth but Bestie gentley rebukes her and reminds her to be thankful in all things. Bestie leads Corrie in a prayer of thanking God for the fleas and trusting that He’s looking after them perfectly.

That leads to a bunch of cool stuff happening, but I’ll let you read it and find out.

Be prepared to get wrecked.

Corrie’s life is an example of how God can use anything for His glory.

One of her anthems that came out of her experiences was “There’s no pit too deep that Jesus isn’t deeper still “

Mum used to tell us this story when we were very young, and I come back to the life of the Ten Boom sisters so often to be reminded of the perfection of Jesus in all things. We can get so caught up in our own struggles, and forget that Jesus has a track record of being perfect.

Remind yourself that He’s enough for everything and anything. There’s nothing too big or too small. No struggle too momentary or persistent. He’s enough for all of it. I often sing to myself the lines “He’s bigger than I know He is and stronger than I hope He is.”

Take a moment to remind yourself of who He says He is. Because it’s really true.

“The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood

And the Lord sits as King forever.”

Psalm 29:10 nkjv

A Need to Be Known

Posted on by Letters To Myself

A number of years ago, I wrote a song called ‘Truth’. In it, there’s the line:

'There's a love that we all seem to crave 

To be noticed, held, appreciated

By someone who we trust with our breath'

Within all of us there’s this innate desire to be known. We long to be heard, seen, and loved. Something inside us longs to be in deep and intimate relationship. Whether we know it or not, we place our entire identity in being known by someone.

Jesus has been showing me that this desire was given to each of us by Him. He’s been teaching me that He’s placed this longing in our hearts to be known because He wants us to know Him. He desires us to have an eternal relationship with the One who breathed life into our lungs and to place our reason for existing in having friendship with Him. But, the wild thing is, not only does God want us to know Him: He wants to know us. The Creator of the Universe, who placed the stars and counts the sand, wants to know us. He wants to be close to us. I’ve been learning recently that Jesus desires to use every moment of our existence to bring us close and closer to Him. Every joy, every adventure, every season of questioning and heartache, every moment of loneliness, and every second of connection that we have with another person Jesus is using to reveal His desire to know us. 

Let that floor you for a moment.

I’m reminded that, being made in the image of God (as Sean Feucht’s beautiful ‘Imago Dei‘ reminds us), we carry His attributes. We were formed with the ability to see and touch and feel like Him. And one of the ways in which we see this is in our need for connection. Not that Jesus needs us: He doesn’t. He is eternally and entirely self sustaining and totally sufficient (else He wouldn’t be God). But, He wants to know us; He wants to invite us into the life that He sustains and into the joy of relationship that only He can give.

There’s a song I’ve been listening to called ‘Abide’ by Kingdom Culture Worship. It starts with the line, “To be love, is to be loved by You.” It hit me so sweetly and deeply that there simply isn’t any love without Jesus. He is love. He is the only place love is found. Any love we have seen or have ever felt was Him loving us. I let that wash over me.

In the same way, to be known, is to be known by Him. There isn’t any knowing without Him. He’s the only One who truly knows us. The only One who can tell us why we breathe. The only One who can satisfy our desire to be seen, held, and loved. And He sees, holds, and loves us more perfectly than we can imagine.

So, today, come close.

Selah the moment and thank Jesus for loving you the way He does. Thank Him for knowing you. And spend sometime getting to know Him. That’s why He died, spent three days in the grave, and rose again.

To know you.

Love is Pain

Posted on by Letters To Myself

Something I’ve been learning is that to love is to choose pain. Every time we let another person have a place of affection and significance in our lives, we’re wilfully allowing that person to potentially hurt us. In a Star Trek Enterprise episode, Phlox, who is the only Denobulan on the Enterprise at that time, observes the ‘oddities’ of the human species that he is surrounded by and is struck by the human’s tendancy toward self-inflicted heartache. He observes that the human race has a natural need for emotional connection, and will go to ‘unreasonable’ lengths to find it. He watches as the crew subject themselves to emotional movies for entertainment and as Captain Archer becomes emotional over his poorly dog and concludes that the human need for attachment both recognises and embraces the pain involved. To the Denobulan (and of course to the Vulcan onboard), this is all entirely irrational. Why would one willfully form an attachment with another if they know that any level of heartache is involved? It seems absurd. The humans onboard, however, are unmoved by Phlox’s objections and consistenly assert and demonstrate that connection and relationship are always more than worth the cost to oneself.

I love this episode (apart from the general weirdness and lack of a higher morality that exists in the Star Trek universe). I love what is being communicated through the script writing: that we will wilfully choose to suffer for love and that to do so core to our identity. We were made for love. Now, the Star Trek example is an imperfect one, because it is devoid of the revelation of the love of Jesus. The human’s drive for love and emotional connection is, at it’s base, selfish: they’re seeking fulfilment for themsleves. The example is a human one. However, true love, the love that we were all created for is selfless at it’s root. The truth that “love suffers long” (1 Cor 13:4 NKJV) is exactly what Jesus came to show us. He came that we would understand that His love is deep and wide and unsearchable in the lengths it will go for us and that that is how He desires us to love eachother: selflessly, adandonedly, and entirely.

A few years ago, there was some controversy over Cory Asbury’s song Reckless Love. Many in the Christian community objected to the perfect love of God being refered to as ‘reckless’ and encouraged worship leaders to refuse to lead their congregations with it becasue it communicated a ‘poor’ theology through its connotation that God is careless and irresponsible in His pursuit of us. As a worship leader, I remember reading these atricles and trying to dig into it. I researched the word ‘reckless’ and found its definition to essentially be: ‘heedless of the danger’. When I read that I laughed. Isn’t that exaclty what Jesus did? He went to the greatest length at the greatest cost to Himself (not so much in His physical death, but in the momentary seperation from the Father that resulted from bearing the weight of the sin of the world) to give us eternal access into His presence. What could be more reckless than to disregard the danger to oneself even to the point of death?

Steaffny Gretzinger’s (yes, I reference her a lot) Sing My Way Back is one of my favourite love songs. One of my favourite lines goes, “If we’re not falling, we’re not flying. You can’t have love without the pain.” I love this recognition that choosing heartache and pain is the only path to connection and joy. Jesus showed us that the only way to have true, deep relationships with others is to give them our hearts in such a way that we let them hurt us. That’s why it’s improtant who we let in. When we choose to trust someone, we give them permission to hurt us in a way that only someone we love deeply can.

In another fictional example, Akiko from the 2021 G.I. Joe prequel Snake Eyes tells Snake Eyes (an outsider to the Arashikage clan) that she got her scar from ‘trusting a guy’. In telling Snake Eyes this, she recognises that loving someone again means willfully allowing herself to be hurt by that person because they will inevitably eventually betray trust and wound her. And that’s *spoiler* exactly what Snake Eyes goes on to do. But that’s the beauty in it all: that we get to love eachother at our best and our worst. Back to the real world: the whole point of it all is that we get to catch a glimpse of Jesus’ love for us by loving the way He does: relentlessly, unendingly, unconitionally, and fully. This is the only path to joy: choosing pain. Not because we’re sadistic, but because we’ve counted the cost as Jesus taught and found the value of relationship to be immeasurable.

This is what Jesus showed us. That “There’s no shadow (He) won’t light up, mountain (He) won’t climb up coming after (us)” (Reckless Love, Cory Asbury). He came to show us that He wants to make us His. Because being His is the only reason to breathe. And loving like Him is not only what we were designed for (as being made in His image), but it’s also our joy and prize. Both in loving Him (which is more, more than enough), and also in loving eachother. The joy of which this life can’t understand.

So, I’m learning to love in ways that don’t protect my rights or shield my heart from pain. Our mandate as Christians is certianly to protect those around us and to defend their rights (Proverbs 3`1:8-10), but not to protect oursleves from pain. Paul encourages us again and again to partake in Christ’s sufferings and to do so with joy (1 Peter 4:12-13, Romasn 5:3-4), repeating the same thing Jesus said in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Getting to love like this is my delight. Loving Jesus and also those around me is worth my life. Suffering for the sake of loving Jesus and those He’s given me is what makes love so precious. So costly and incomparable. And not only that. What it does in my heart and soul in connecting me to my Lover is worth starting it all over again. I get to love. As Ruelle puts it, “It’s the best thing that I’ll ever do.”

Loving Freely Now

Posted on by Letters To Myself

I have a lot of people ask me pretty often why I’m not on dating apps, ‘putting myself out there’, or looking for a relationship. I guess there are many reasons, but one that has been hitting me harder and harder recently is because I’m not waiting to love anyone. I’m loving the people I’ve been given with my whole heart now.

Years ago, I was at DT, and a friend, Jos, prayed for me that I wouldn’t wait to love; but, that I’d love the people I’d already been given with everything that was in me. The prayer came as a response to me wanting a family of my own. His prayer stuck with me for months and years, and it has become one of my most beloved and important mantras: to love the people I already have with everything that is in me and to hold nothing back.

I’ve had to ask myself the question a number of times, “What if I give my love away and don’t have enough left for my future?” That question is equally juvenile and hilarious, but God has always met it with sincerity and gentleness (as He always does with honest, yet childlike questions). He’s taught me that two things.

  1. This love isn’t my own. There is no way I could love anyone, let alone myself. And no chance whatsoever that i could love anyone well. I only love because He loved me first and gave me His love. All my love is an overflow. Which means that all the love I have is dependent upon His character, which is:
  2. Endless. He stays the same. Never changes. Never runs out. Never depletes in any of His capacities or character qualities. He is love. And His love is endless and boundless. Eternal and limitless. It can’t ever run out because He can’t. That means that I will never run out of love as long as I stay rooted in Him. I can give all I am away, and I’ll always, somehow, have more and greater love in my future. Not because God’s love changes, but because I will never come to the end of learning more about and growing in capacity for His love to be in and through me.

He gave me this beautiful picture of a mother loving her first child with her every bone and whole soul. However, when the next child came, she didn’t love the next any less because of it. In fact, she loved the first child MORE than before because when she had the second child her capacity for love had grown. I had the revelation that with each new person (or in this case child) we let into our heart, our hearts expand and become more capable of loving than they were before. That wrecks me.

So, in answer to that question. I struggle, sure. But I’ve learned that contentment is based on giving all we are to the now. I believe that’s a skill we’ll be applying for eternity.

My lesson to myself: Stay rooted in the Father’s love (let your roots grow deeper and wider). Love fully. Hold nothing back. Contentment is right there. I believe we’ll be content for life in every season if we learn this.

.

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
1 Peter 4:8 NIV

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John 15:12 NKJV

“We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
I John 4:19‭-‬21 NKJV

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”
Psalms 23:1 NIV

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Hebrews 13:8 NIV

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:38‭-‬39 NKJV

Thankful for Love

Posted on by Letters To Myself

I’ve shared on this blog before about my struggle with learning how to drive, so I knew that I’d also share on here what I learned through the whole experience when I finally passed. When I thought about what I would have learned when I passed, I imagined it would be lessons about perseverance, overcoming fear and anxiety, character building, and faith. It is all those things, but, from the other side, I can see it’s so much more. It’s more than just fighting our battles and overcoming our struggles. It’s more beautiful than that.

I remember listening to a Steffany Gretzinger sermon in which she spoke about inviting others into our stories and letting them fight for us. Since passing, I’ve been thinking about the fact that if God didn’t give us battles that were too big for us, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to invite other people into our stories in the same way. We could just soldier on and fight all our battles alone, missing out on the whole point.

The week before passing my test, I started to realise that I had a pretty incredible team of people around me. I knew that already, but it was dawning on me in a new way. I realised that I had some of the best championers of my heart in my life that I could ever dream of or hope for. People who had prayed for me, encouraged me, spoken life over me, or who had simply held my hand or given me a hug when I needed it. I began to stop and count my blessings. In doing that, I realised I had much, much more to be thankful for than I did to be fearful of.

That’s huge.

I think there’s a connection between freedom from anxiety and security in the love of the people around us. I think that’s what God’s building in me.

I wrote a song earlier this year with the line, “I’m secure in your love. You have my trust.” It wasn’t a song about relationships that were free from pain, disappointment or the need for forgiveness; it was the exact opposite. However, it was about the need for me (and each of us) to be emotionally vulnerable (not hard hearted and guarded) and willing to trust the people around me with my heart even when they don’t always steward it perfectly. It’s a reminder that it’s the moments of forgiveness, restoration, and authenticity that bring deep connection. So, I can freely give my heart, love and trust to the people around me because I know that even when we let eachother down, God wants to use those very times to strengthen both us and our relationships.

I guess I’m mostly learning and relearning that people are a gift. I can get easily caught up in a task, chore, or job that I need to do and forget that nothing I ever do or can achieve is as important as the people I’ve been given. Too many times I get frustrated or anxious over a ‘thing’ and don’t stop to invite the people around me into my heart. Learning to drive has been a beautiful lesson in this for me. Not only can I invite other people into my heart and battles; in doing so, I can also love them well and fight alongside them in their battles.

“We were never meant to do this alone.”

I’m convinced that God allows us to face battles that are too big for us because we were always supposed cling onto Him (first) and to invite other people into our stories.

What if it’s less about the battle we’re facing and more about the people He gives us along the way?

It’s all about relationship. That’s our highest purpose: to be in relationship with God and the people He gives us.

I’m praying that I never loose sight of that.

You have my permission to remind me of that. And let me know if you need reminding.

So, a conclusion to my 9+ years learning to drive story (an end that is really only the beginning) : I passed my test. Jesus is so kind.

Instead of being annoyed or disappointed that it’s taken me this long, I am actually extremely grateful that I haven’t passed until now. God’s timing is perfect. He knows exactly what He’s doing (remind yourself of that when you’re disheartened that you’re not achieving something as quickly as you hoped to or thought you would). If I had passed any earlier, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to invite my family and friends (all of whom are heroes and wonders) into my struggles and let them love and support me.

To my family and beloved, beloved friends: I am so thankful for you. I love that I get to love you. And especially to my mum, who has worked just as hard and as long as I have to enable me to pass: you’re amazing. I love you. Thank you.

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear…”
I John 4:18a NKJV

Temper Tantrums and Anger Management

Posted on by Letters To Myself

My sister Elizabeth is one of the most patient and gentle people you will ever meet. However, she wasn’t always that way. She used to have a reputation for being an incredibly destructive and violent little girl. She has an amazing testimony of how she let Jesus take her emotions and refine them, and it’s an honour to let her share a little bit of that story here.

If you have bigger emotions than you know what to do with most days, this is for you. And if you have anyone in your life that feels that way, this is for you too. I pray this empowers and equips you to be patient and gracious in all things as Jesus continues this incredible story this side of Heaven in allowing us to become more like Him through our daily refining.

Be blessed.

Hello! My name is Lizzie, and I had temper tantrums from the ages of 2 to 10. That sounds fairly normal, right? Don’t most children have some outbursts of temper? So what set me apart from other tantruming children? Well, I’d say it was my aggressive tendencies and the fact that I was pretty strong for a little girl. In the height of my temper years (between 3 and 7), I kicked, punched, bit, threw things, and broke two doors down. Yes, that’s right; I did bang a door off of its hinges at the age of 5.
I was a total menace. And I wasn’t like this to just my family; my friends’ mothers would also get the brunt of my hitting and kicking.

So why did I act this way? What possible reason was there for a seemingly innocent little girl to turn into a violent screaming terror? Surely it wasn’t actually just because she couldn’t play with her friends for another hour? The answer is quite simply Anger. I would get so mad over some injustice that had been done to me, or I would fester about a disagreement I had had. I would get so angry it felt like my chest was actually on fire. I would get so caught up in whatever it was that had gotten me mad, l I would fall into a full-out rage. At that point I wasn’t thinking anymore and had very little control over my actions. All I wanted was to get my anger out on anything or anyone whom attempted to calm me.

Now while this behaviour was obviously atrocious, I will point out that anger in and of itself isn’t bad. The Bible even speaks of a righteous anger and God Himself getting angry such as in Numbers 11:10. But the reason behind our anger is important; it’s one thing to get angry about others getting hurt and entirely another to lose it when you haven’t been treated right. As Christians we are to endure suffering patiently and even joyfully! Which of course is easier said than done. There is also a big difference between being angry about something and being so angry that you can no longer think rationally and end up being the one hurting even those closest to you.

So how is that I no longer have tantrums? My answer is the grace of God. When I was 10 years old I was fed up of losing it. I didn’t want to break things, and I really didn’t want to hurt anyone. I felt like I was a monster. So I asked God to take my temper away. I no longer cared about always getting my way; I just wanted the rages to stop. God did take the rages away, and after that day I never had a temper that got to the point of losing it. But that didn’t mean that my tempers stopped altogether; I had to really work at it for it to completely go. I came up with calming down techniques that really worked for me. One was that, when I would start feeling that burn in my chest and I knew that I was headed into a tantrum, I would completely remove myself from the situation and go for a walk. I wouldn’t spend this walk festering but rather praying. I would talk it out with God until I could see His side of it. Something that you might know about if you’ve  ever gotten that burning feeling of rage is that it doesn’t usually just go away. It’s an awful feeling that you just want to get out of you. While I’ve heard that punching bags are very helpful for this, for me it only made it worse. What I did instead was cry. Crying worked great because once you’ve started it’s very hard to stop until you’ve properly let your emotions out. I had a crying tree that I would walk to if I was feeling angry, sad, or overwhelmed. The tree was perfect because it was secret and out of sight; I don’t like people seeing me cry.

Eventually I got better at controlling my emotions. I didn’t even have to go for a walk every time I got mad; I would just take a deep breath and let it go. I think how you breathe is key; deep sharp breaths can just make you more mad, but deep slow breaths calm you down and help you to think more clearly.

This is only my personal experience and what worked for me. I haven’t had another temper for eight years now. I’m very grateful to God and to my family for always sticking it through and not giving up on me despite how I treated them.

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“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” James 1:19-20

“Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
II Timothy 2:22

“Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused; Moses also was displeased.”
Numbers 11:10 NKJV

“He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, But he who is impulsive exalts folly.”
Proverbs 14:29

“Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, For anger rests in the bosom of fools.”
Ecclesiastes 7:9 NKJV

“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”
Ephesians 4:26‭-‬32 NKJV

You’re Adorable

Posted on by Letters To Myself

Being raised in large family, as a PK (pastor’s kid) and childminding/babysitting from a young teen, I’ve been around children a lot. Children are one of my greatest passions. They’re amazing. Any day I get to spend with children instantly makes the day a joy. However, having spent so much time with children, I’m also aware that there are moments and sometimes days in which the child/children you are with make you want to rip your hair out (if they haven’t already done it for you).

It’s in these moments that I’ve found it’s important and helpful to have a game plan. It’s easy to become overwhelmed, frustrated, emotional and stressed, but I’ve learned something that I’ve found helpful. It’s simply remembering that, despite what the child is doing, they are wildly, ridiculously, beautifully, and incredibly adorable. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s real. Next time you sit your screaming child on the step or watch one child whack another, take a second before you respond to remember how wonderful and adorable they are. I’ve found that everytime I respond/intervene keeping in mind how gorgeous Jesus sees them, the conversation is led by love. Of course, there have been times when I’ve not done this and when no matter how patient, loving and kind I am the situation doesn’t become easier. But, when I keep my heart in check, no matter how hard or long the struggle is or lasts (and it may last a long, long time), it ends with love and not frustration.

I’ve found this strategy to work every time, but recently, I had a brainwave. What if I applied the same strategy to all my relationships. What if, when I’m in the middle of an argument or feeling hurt and offended by someone else, I stop and remember how amazing Jesus thinks that person is. That He gave everything He had to be with them because He’s wild about them and thinks they’re insanely beautiful and wonderful; so much so that He didn’t count dying too high a cost. What if I stopped and realised that, because of Jesus, they’re adorable.

I’ve been trying to learn this recently. I’ve been trying to let this mindset transform my heart and conversations. People can be difficult. People can be downright ugly. But Jesus died for us even then. He sees us as wonderful, beautiful and lovable, not because we are in and of ourselves, but because He made us in His image. He is the Beautiful and Wonderful One. He is the One who is worthy of all our love and adoration. The wonder of it all is that He chooses to pour out His own goodness on us and invite us into His own glory and beauty. That’s wild.

So, note to self, next time you find yourself caught up in an argument, feeling hurt or offended, or watching someone do something wrong, remember that, because of what Jesus has done and who He is, they are adorable. We can adore them because God adores them and us. We’re called to love eachother (each person) with the same love that Jesus has for each of us. We’re called to have the literal mind of Christ and see through His eyes. It’s a wild invitation to look into the face of hate, ugliness, rejection, bitterness, despair and betrayal and see Jesus in them and us.

As patronizing as it sounds, because of Jesus, it’s true:

You’re adorable.

.

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“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
Genesis 1:27 NKJV

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Romans 5:6‭-‬11 NKJV

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as  yet  there  were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.
Psalms 139:14‭-‬18 NKJV

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
John 15:4‭-‬5 NKJVor of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:36 NKJV

 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
Colossians 1:16 NKJV

 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
James 1:16‭-‬18 NKJV