"The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord."
-Job 1:21
“All that I have has been lent to me by the Lord so that I may glorify Him with it. It is not some inherent right for me to have good health, a beautiful family, a safe home or the freedoms I currently enjoy. How is it that I may glorify Him? By doing good works in my good health; to serve my family by teaching my children to love and honor God and to encourage my family to love and honor Christ with all our heart, soul, strength and mind.”
I just
stumbled upon this note, which I had written sometime over the last year. It was
sloppily tucked underneath the computer monitor. How could I have known at the
time I wrote it just how much I would need these words right now? And how did it
stay tucked under the monitor for a whole year without getting “tidied up”?
Divine providence, no doubt. “All that I
have has been lent to me by the Lord so that I may glorify Him with it.”
Today we
received some bittersweet news. Our fourth child, whom we excitedly learned
we were expecting just days before Christmas, has preceded us to Glory. While
we grieve the lost opportunity to love and nurture another sweet child in this
world, we are overjoyed to know that he or she is blissfully at home with our
wonderful Jesus!
We find it a
tremendous comfort and, yes, even a joy to have been counted worthy to suffer
for our Lord. And yet, it does not seem right to call it “suffering”. How can it be suffering to know
that this child is free from the cares and entanglements of this world, never
having to wage the deadly battle against sin, and is now free to worship Christ
and rest in him for eternity?! And how good it is to remember that our God is a God who
knows and understands the pain and loss the death of a child brings - Who knows
it better than we ever could! What solace we find in His loving arms!
I have been wondering lately: Do I love Christ above all other things?
My favorite hymn writer, Fanny Crosby, wrote one of our family’s most loved hymns, “To God Be The Glory”. As I consider those words she penned, I believe I
have my answer. Do I love Christ more than this little baby who has left us so
quickly? Yes. Do I love Christ more than the children that remain? Yes. Do I
love Christ more than I love my husband? Yes. Do I love Him more than my own
life? Yes. “But purer, and higher, and greater will be our wonder, our
transport, when Jesus we see.” Oh, just to glimpse His face! Every other joy,
every other love, every other delight I have known pales at the thought of
seeing my Savior’s face!! And, oh! our sweet baby, even now, does behold Him! And like our dear baby, when
He calls me, I shall go, like a bride goes to her groom!
May
we bring glory to God by remembering and rejoicing in this little life that He
has lent to us for such a short season!
“And we know that all things
work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according
to His purpose…
He
who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us
all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?...
Who shall separate us from the love
of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword?...
Yet
in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height
nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:28, 31-32, 35, 37-39
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