Because He Trusted

I went to the cemetery alone because I thought it would be a difficult visit.

I pulled up, noticing the live oaks contrasting with the dead tombstones. The trees’ branches were covered in green ferns that gave them a live, jungly look.

I found the grave and stood looking down at the only earthly remains of grandparents who were once as vibrant as the fern-covered trees and still infinitely more dear.

Instead of the familiar choking of grief, I looked down at the grass covering their grave and had the startling realization: They aren’t here. Grief vanished. I shrugged. They weren’t there.

Perhaps that’s how King Darius felt when he went to pull Daniel out of the lion’s den. He looked down into the earth, expecting to see death and decay, but instead, he was met with a strong, cheerful voice assuring him that the Living God is indeed powerful enough to deliver from death.

Why did God deliver Daniel? Why does God deliver anyone from death?

God answers this question in Daniel 6:23. “So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in His God.”

It wasn’t because he prayed three times a day, faced Jerusalem, or got down on his knees. God delivered Daniel from death because he trusted God.

Daniel wrote this account in Aramaic, the language of Babylon that had enslaved him, even though his native tongue was Hebrew. It is interesting that the word in both Aramaic and Hebrew for trusted is “aman.” 

In Aramaic, aman meant to trust, believe, be faithful and sure. 

In Hebrew, it is the word that unites the one who trusts with who is being trusted in. Aman meant to confirm, support, to give assurance, establish, to make steadfast, to bring up, to foster as a parent or nurse. 

I saw a demonstration of this complex word recently when I visited my brother. He had friends over who brought along their one year old, Henry.

Henry was friendly and engaging, but when he first arrived, he hung onto his father’s leg, peeking out at all the strangers timidly. As his father demonstrated confidence and assurance, Henry felt secure enough to toddle towards the kitchen of strangers and ask for a bite of a cookie. 

Because he trusted his father, he had the established assurance he needed to interact, even in a new setting.

Because Daniel clung to the hem of His Father’s robe in trust and belief, Daniel was steadfast even as he was thrown into the lion’s den.

So, just as Daniel was taken up out of that den and no kind of harm was found on him, so we can all be taken up out of death and hell when we cling in trust to the One who fosters us- Jesus. 

The day after I had the happy cemetery visit, I went on a tour where the guide identified the type of fern I had seen growing on the live oaks.

“Oh, that!” the guide said, “That is resurrection fern.” That is because they trusted.