We have all had times in life when we feel crushed under a load of pain and sorrow. We have all questioned, "Why, Lord?" and sometimes, God shows us His plan immediately, but sometimes we don't get the answer right away and sometimes we never do. That is when it becomes easy to listen to Satan's lies that God doesn't care, or maybe even that He doesn't exist. We have certainly had these moments in our life, when the unbelievable happens, and even though we belong to Him, the pain blindsided us temporarily and we were left stunned and asking why.
One of those times was when our oldest daughter, Lyndee, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of 13. I would like to say we had such total faith and trust that we just accepted it and lived happily ever after, but that wasn't the case. We felt the devastation of the knowledge that our precious child would be suffering this disease the rest of her life and that, most likely, her life would end much earlier than we would ever like to think about, possibly even before ours ended. I won't even go into the emotions, the hurt, the anger I personally went through on behalf of my child, because those emotions ARE human, and we have all been through them. What I will tell you about is the peace God brought to our hearts when we finally just laid it all at His feet.
Another time, for my husband, was when, after my hysterectomy, every thing went haywire and I had an internal hemorrhage and he was told I might not survive the 2nd surgery. I know he wondered what he would do without me. We are best friends, partners in life and ministry, and we still had a 16 year old and a 3 year old at home.
And again, 3 years ago, he watched me lying unconscious in the ICU because I had suffered a brain hemorrhage. I am sure there were "Whys" that were going through his mind. But, we have both learned to trust completely He who gave Himself for us.
Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song after the tragic death of his little girl that so expresses what we have experienced in our own hearts. I am posting it and urge you to listen to the message of love in this song.
Why am I writing this? Two months ago, my sweet cousin's precious little girl, who was only 13 months old, died suddenly of hypoglycemia. Her world is so dark and sad because she doesn't know the Savior. She is hurting and alone, with no hope of seeing her beautiful baby girl ever again. I want to send her this message that in Him there is hope. No matter how deep the valley, no matter how heavy the load...Jesus will meet you there!
Mt 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
