A friend of mine lost her job last week. Her company needed to cut expenses, so they sacrificed her position.

It’s a scene that is being played out in offices and on factory floors throughout the nation. I’m really in no position to argue with the reasoning behind the decision her employer made. Their industry is facing especially hard times in the midst of an economic storm that seems to threaten the very fabric of our lives, and I’m sure that the company’s owners were clamoring for expenses to be cut.

What bothered me about her situation was the callous disregard her employer showed just two weeks before Christmas for a woman with a family that depended on her. Did a company that had been losing money for months, if not years, really have to choose the Christmas season to draw its line in the sands of the economy? Couldn’t they have waited just a couple more weeks, I wondered.

I stewed over the situation most of last weekend and resolved to offer my friend whatever help I could. And then, on Tuesday, I saw her again. The anger I felt about the way she had been treated melted away in the light of the peace I saw in her face.

Somehow, she had come to terms with her situation, even before I had.

I hugged her and told her how sorry I was for what had happened, and I told her I’d been praying for her. She thanked me and recalled our first meeting several months ago, when we’d spoken about God’s amazing love.

“Whatever you do,” she said Tuesday, “just keep putting God first, and everything will be OK.”

Such faith in the face of what must be an overwhelming sense of uncertainty about the future reveals a woman who has taken God’s promise to never leave or forsake us and made it her own.

In these uncertain times, the certainty of God’s love for us is a reassurance that no paycheck could ever match, and I thank my friend for reminding me of that on Tuesday.