"In the Bible clouds are always connected with God. Clouds areI guess I'm not there yet, because I'm having a very hard time with this. I canceled school today because I just didn't feel like I could do that as I work through this. Thanks for your prayers, both for Elizabeth and Ed, and also for us, as we grieve the loss of a precious baby.
sufferings or providences, within or without our personal lives, which seem to
dispute the rule of God. It is by those very clouds that God is teaching
us to walk by faith. . . . What a revelation
it is to know that sorrow and bereavement and suffering are the clouds that come
along with God. God cannot come near without clouds, He does not come in
clear shining. It is not true to say God wants to teach us something
in our trials: through every cloud He brings, He wants us to unlearn
something. His purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until our
relationship to Him is exactly that of a child--God and my own soul, other
people are shadows. . . Unless we can look at
the darkest, blackest fact full in the face without damaging the character,
we do not yet know Him."
Friday, July 29, 2005
Mourning
Today we are grieving because our friends Ed and Elizabeth have lost their baby. I am just so devastated. When Bob told me last night, my mind refused to believe it. The boys were so sad too. Luke started crying when I told them this morning. I just don't understand God. Why give someone a wonderful surprise and then snatch it back, just as everyone was so excited? It seems so . . . capricious. Cruel. Like a cat toying with a mouse or something. Oswald Chambers says in today's devotional,
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One of my devotionals this morning dealt with the storm clouds of life and I thought of how applicable it was for both the L's and the Mc's with what they are both going through.
The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and storm" (Nahum 1:3).
I recollect, when a lad, and while attending a classical institute in the vicinity of Mount Pleasant, sitting on an elevation of that mountain, and watching a storm as it came up the valley. The heavens were filled with blackness, and the earth was shaken by the voice of thunder. It seemed as though that fair landscape was utterly changed, and its beauty gone never to return.
But the storm swept on, and passed out of the valley; and if I had sat in the same place on the following day, and said, "Where is that terrible storm, with all its terrible blackness?" the grass would have said, "Part of it is in me," and the daisy would have said, "Part of it is in me," and the fruits and flowers and everything that grows out of the ground would have said, "Part of the storm is incandescent in me."
Have you asked to be made like your Lord? Have you longed for the fruit of the Spirit, and have you prayed for sweetness and gentleness and love? Then fear not the stormy tempest that is at this moment sweeping through your life. A blessing is in the storm, and there will be the rich fruitage in the "afterward." --Henry Ward Beecher
The flowers live by the tears that fall
From the sad face of the skies;
And life would have no joys at all,
Were there no watery eyes.
Love thou thy sorrow: grief shall bring
Its own excuse in after years;
The rainbow!--see how fair a thing
God hath built up from tears.
--Henry S. Sutton
I'm sorry for your grief and your friends precious loss. I went through similiar feelings lately. A lot of people around me, especially children have been suffering or dying and it's hard to understand. But, we have to hold strong, like Job, that God has a better plan. Only he can see the end and maybe He's sparing us more grief than we realize.
I'm sorry, I wish I could make it make sense. But then it wouldn't be "Faith" would it?
Hugs,
Jess
Thanks for your encouragement, Aunt CLaire and Jess. I am feeling better today, finally. It has helped that I've seen Elizabeth twice and seen that she is okay and dealing with things well. Our pastor preached today in Ephesians, and I was just caught by Eph. 3: 17b-19, "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." That's what I'm praying for now, to know more of Christ's love and feel secure in it, no matter what happens. I'm not there yet.
Hopeful. I had a patient today who was having her 5th baby, she has four boys and she had a girl this time. She was very excited, although if she had a another boy she would be just as excited. She also home schools all the boys and works part time as a dental hygenist. I thought of you. Take care mel
I am so excited that you commented on my blog, Mel!!! Thanks for the encouraging story--that lady sounds just like me! I will be excited if it is a girl, but to be honest, I'll be just as excited if it's another boy. It would be a lot cheaper that way, anyhow! : )
Wow! I am jealous that Mel commented!!!!! I'm GLAD she did...I hope she'll comment on mine one of these days! :)
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