December 2009
Dear Friends,
You have all been on my heart this month. I hope you are well and resting in the peace of our Father. I have so much to share with you and only so much paper, so here goes! I will share three significant situations that happened in my world this month and how God used them to teach me further who He is and who I am in Him. Life is short, may it count for something greater than ourselves.
A guy I work with called us early one morning to let us know his niece woke up screaming and had been rushed to Children’s Hospital. What developed was this precious four year old suffered a brain aneurism, had emergency surgery and subsequently died. We went to the funeral just days ago. My heart screams WHY??!! I have two children and many of you have children. Why did our families escape such tragedy this month? And then I see how God has brought hope out of tragedy. Her family donated all her organs and her innocent body will conservatively save the lives of seven other children. I can hear those other families screaming for JOY and thanking God that their prayers will be answered. Their children will live because this child died. God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8) but He is in control and His love is the same for the family who lost their child, for the families who received the organs so their child might live, and for each of us as well. I am glad God is in control and that we can trust Him in the most painful hours. “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens,” Psalm 68:19
Also, my husband ran in the St Jude Half-Marathon in Memphis, TN, a few weekends ago. He pulled a muscle around mile 8 and finished the remaining 13.1 miles in excruciating pain. I know the Lord helped him. Who wouldn’t want to quit when you are hurting and know your finish time will not beat your personal record? I was thankful to see him at the finish line and proud of his accomplishment, an example to our kids that we do not quit when life is hard. Remember Paul in 2 Tim 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” May that be true for every obstacle we face, that God gives us the endurance to persevere. We were getting ready to leave the finish area when we heard all these anguishing cries of emergency personnel screaming “move out of the way.” After which, around 10 people running with a gurney, pushing a lady with another woman on top of her aggressively doing CPR, raced to a nearby ambulance. The cries of the emergency personnel were so desperate we knew her life was in imminent danger. We discovered she later died. Wow, double whammy! Life is a vapor. James 4:14 “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
Our life is short. We are not promised tomorrow. The sweet four year old girl and the 32 year old runner did not know their lives would be over. Their death’s came suddenly, no warning, no second chances, no looking back. And God reminds me of Isaiah 40:6-8 “All men are like grass, and all their glory (our accomplishments, the good stuff we do) is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” And then in Psalm 103:15-17 “As for a man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower in a field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him.” Both my children could have suddenly died and my husband collapsed at the finish line, later to be pronounced dead. God reminded me that our lives are so short, so temporary. Our lives are for an appointed time, but the word of God and the love of God remains forever.
After the race, we rested with friends and then started planning a tattoo. What??!! Yes, our friends have been on a rollercoaster ride this year and God has been the restorer of broken walls. The man had an affair and an exposed sex addiction that cost him his job. God touched the woman’s heart to show her that she was not without sin and so by God’s grace she forgave. She admitted she had made her husband an idol, worshiping him and placing her dependency in man rather than Christ. Jeremiah 17 explains that cursed are we that trust in man, but blessed is the man who puts His full confidence in the Lord. She wanted to get a tattoo, in lieu of a renewal of vows ceremony, to symbolize God’s forgiveness, to remind her to continue to forgive and to remember that God brings beauty from ashes.
He wants to get a tattoo of a dead tree with new growth to represent Rev 21 where God makes all things new. She was drawn to Isaiah 61:3 that is a description of what Jesus brings…comfort to all who mourn, provision to those who grieve, beauty for ashes, gladness for mourning, praise instead of despair and that all Christ followers will be a planting of the Lord to display His splendor. They want the 17 years of deception and sin in their marriage to be transformed into the beauty God brings from His restoration. Sin was exposed in January 2009. Healing, forgiveness, mercy, grace and God’s love, that is from everlasting to everlasting, has been their balm for almost one full year. She rests in the arms of her Father and she wants to tell the entire world all God has done. Their lives are a living example of Psalm 53:9 “I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope; for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.”
We found a tattoo parlor and seven of us watched her receive a tattoo. She was so brave. She took the pain out of love for Christ, her husband and the sanctity of their marriage. God has given them a new start. He is a God of second chances. He loves us in spite of the wrongs we have done. He longs for us to return to him. In our brokenness, he makes all things new. I am reminded of Psalm 51:15-17 where God does not delight in our offerings or sacrifices, but in our brokenness. When we are broken, He can use us. Life is no longer about us, but the One who created us. We like our perceived “control,” but the very breath we take is only because God allows it. Everything is under His great mercy. “He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him,” 1 Thess 5:10.
All for the King who came as a baby to give us eternal life,