Sunday, January 6, 2013

To God Be The Glory!



 "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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