Leaning.

I woke up this morning praying for a friend. As I lay in bed, I sleepily prayed for them first just the word trust, and then a picture: them leaning all their weight on God, letting go, trusting Him to hold all of them.

Within the hour I was still not all the way awake but dressed, backpacked, seated by the window at a small table at Chapters, sipping my hazelnut coffee. My Bible was opened to my current reading for Fridays: Isaiah; today, chapter 10. One verse stood out to me, and I read it over and over. I copied it into my journal slowly, bolding the words with my pen. "In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth." I wrote part of it again: "... but will lean on the Lord." One more time, just one word: "Lean." I didn't think at all about the picture I'd just been praying.

8:40 am and I grabbed a seat next to Jaynie, cracked my MacBook, joked with my cohort as we settled in to start class. The smiling professor began, as she always does, with reading from a devotional book. Halfway through it occured to me what I was hearing. "...Trust is like a staff you can lean on, as you journey uphill with Me. If you are trusting in Me consistently, the staff will bear as much of your weight as needed. Lean on, trust, and be confident in Me with all your heart and mind."

Interesting.

Lean: to rest against or on something for support; to depend or rely upon.