“In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them.” —Isaiah 63:9, NKJVGod’s daughters throughout history have always been covered. Miriam, along with her cowanderers in the Sinai desert, found relief from the noonday heat beneath a billowing cloud, a cloud that concealed God’s real-time, caring, and protective presence. “Under His wings” (Psalm 91:4, NKJV) and within “the shadow of My hand” (Isaiah 51:16, NKJV), she and her sisters learned to trust, pray, endure trial, obey, and serve.Furthermore, God’s daughters, such as Mary Magdalene (see Luke 8:2), experienced Heaven uplifting them (Psalm 30:1) and carrying them to victory through discouragement, grief, traumatic loss, injustice, and addictions.In Covered and Carried, a collection of devotional essays by women from all over the world, contemporary daughters of God tell their stories of rejecting enemy lies—lies such as “God has abandoned you, leaving you unprotected, alone, and without hope.” With confident voices, share from personal experience how “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8, NIV). They tell of grace, perseverance, and new beginnings.They tell of what it’s like to be . . . covered and carried.Covered and Carried, edited by Carolyn Rathbun Sutton, is the 2022 edition of the annual General Conference Women’s Ministries devotional book. Proceeds fund scholarships for women in Adventist colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.
