For its first nine months, a baby is nurtured by an intimate connection, a reassuring swaddling, in its mother. The initial moments following birth are a disconnect from that vital environment. Finding reconnection is high priority, to feel the mother’s warmth, her heartbeat, to hear her familiar, caressing voice. Our new birth, as Jesus called it, calls for a similar knowing of our being connected, of not being all alone. Especially this is so, when trials and difficulties assail us. We were designed for connection, to not be alone, to be ‘with.’ Jesus came to us as Emmanuel, God ‘with’ us.

Genesis 2:18-25, 2 Kings 6:8-23, Isaiah 43:1-7

1. Genesis 2:18-25 – Connection for mankind – ________________

2. 2 Kings 6:8-23 – Connection for wartime – __________________

3. Isaiah 43:1-7 -Connection for a lifetime – ___________________

‘ . . . be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’

Matthew 28:20, NLT