when life is an ocean that brings wave upon wave of pain and sorrow...
when the phone rings and the news is not good and brokenness enters in and makes a home at your feet...
when the claim "...but God is good" has been on your tongue throughout your own situation, but seems so inapplicable and trite in the pain of someone else's...
when the words pertaining to God's love rub salt into a wound that is so fresh that it can't comprehend how it could be true, because if He is Love, how could He allow ____________?
when sleep finally overtakes at 4am and the tears finally stop and morning comes with a 3 year old's face pressed close to yours and the pain settles in once again when the remembering comes...
and all the questions and confusion and shock come tumbling in again and flood a heart that loves and wants to protect and shelter.
and still, still He whispers, for I know the plans I have for you...
and i want to scream that if He truly knew, then why???
WHY???
because these plans don't seem to be good or for the benefit of...
and then these words, sitting open in a book on my lap,
we live in a fallen world in which bad things happen...try as we might we can never guarantee...safety, but we can guarantee that [we] are never beyond the realm of God's presence..."the Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those who are crushed in spirit" (psalm 34:18). He knows how you feel. He sent His Son into the world and then watched Him face danger, sufferings, and death. but the story didn't end when the soldiers sealed Christ's tomb.
three days later, Christ rose from the dead! death and defeat were vanquished for all who believe on His Name. regardless of what happens in this temporary life on earth, we have confidence that Christ Himself is with us and those we love, and we have hope. (emphasis mine)
the story didn't end...
regardless of what happens...
Christ Himself, with me...with those i love...
and because of this i have hope.
for what, i don't know.
i don't know anymore.
but i am choosing to believe that He knows, and because He knows, all the pain and brokenness will be used for His glory, even when the very words are heavy to type.
because sometimes the heaviest words carry the most weight...
