The moment they’re born, baby giraffes fall eight feet from their mother’s womb to the concrete earth. That’s when the real violence begins, as the mother kicks blow after blow to her fledgling struggling to stand… and just when it gets on its feet, she uses her powerful neck to shove the baby down yet again. But what looks like merciless cruelty is actually the mother’s first gift to her offspring…

It has to learn to get up.

It has to learn to get up quickly, because lurking nearby, tasting the wind for new birth, are lions and leopards stalking to devour those who don’t get up fast enough. If the herd has to flee, the baby must be ready.

After the gladiatorial walloping subsides and the baby giraffe is firmly standing, only then does the mother celebrate—Her joy is unmistakable. It’s a celebration of life. She knows her baby is going to make it, because it is able to stand.

 

And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

~ Romans 14:4

 

Some days can feel like starting all over again, even falling out of bed eight feet to the floor like a newborn giraffe, only to be kicked again and again by doomsday newsfeeds, harassed by people who don’t love well, a rush of memories leaking some of yesterday into today… You might feel like not getting up at all. You might even feel hopeless.

Child of God, get up.

Because even though there are things staring you down from the weeds, you are needed.

How do you fight the lurking darkness? You pray, and while God is handling the impossible, you put on the Armor of Light and shine into someone else’s shadows…

 

…put on the armor of light.

~ Romans 13:12

 

The Darkness wants you to stay down.

It doesn’t want you to smile, or cook, or plant, or show up. It doesn’t want you to speak kindness to those who feel invisible or deliver food to fellowships or even do today’s chores. It wants you to quit—it wants you to think all is lost.

All is not lost, because you are the light of the world.

 

You are the light of the world.

~ Jesus

 

Because The Resurrection happened, you are here to show those alone in the dark within your reach that Love is coming for them. You have to get up. You have to shine, to fight, to breathe on the embers of your one life and light the way…

 

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.

~ Romans 8:11

 

You have to build, create, craft, teach, serve… This is the kindling of your life.

Summon all your love, all your gifts, all your insight, all your talent, and offer them a blazing sacrifice to the God who resurrects so the smoke signal of your hope rises to those needing to see signs of life. There are too many dead people telling us it’s over.

It’s nowhere near over because the Light of Life is alive in us.

 

Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.

~ Jesus

 

Whatever you’re facing today, get up, and get up quickly. He who lives in you is able to make you stand.