The Gap-Filler

Our love is always inadequate, never full or complete enough, but God fills in the gaps. We want to love God totally without any reservations, but we always fall short. As we start another year, I want to think this year I’ll do better, pray more, give of myself more, come closer to what I want to be. Then laziness creeps in, and excuses, and failures.

I have to remind myself that God does not expect perfection. He can take our small efforts and magnify them, fill in the gaps. Just as a child learning to walk, with a few mishaps and falls, we are all toddlers in the spiritual life. Sometimes it’s two steps forward and one step back.  God is always there to assist us, to guide us, to pick us up when we fall.

We, of course, have to show a willingness to grow, to reach out. We need to really place ourselves in God’s hands and ask for his guidance and forgiveness. God always listens to our longings and reassures us when we are afraid. He often does this through others—a friend, a family member, an associate, a spiritual guide.

In Psalm 23, we read: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (v.4) That is the confidence we ought to have. Like a father comforts a child, so God comforts us through all the dark periods of our lives. There may be holes or wide gaps in our lives, but God is ever ready to forgive, to comfort, to hold on to us.