For The Good

Sitting up awake while the rest of my sweet family sleeps.

Tomorrow is our 2nd Anniversary. Two years of marriage. Two sweet babies. Two sweet, hard, wonderful, precious years. Two years that I am abundantly thankful for...

I keep thinking about the beginning this week. It wasn't what most would call picture perfect. It wasn't what many would call ideal. It wasn't what I thought it would be, but it was what God had in store for us. And isn't that always best? Though things may not be what we would have asked for, what we pictured... isn't what He wants always best? It would be easy for people to look back and say that we were foolish, it never should have happened and countless other snippets. Foolish yes... we were foolish, but I have no doubts that God brought the two of us together.

God has a way of doing things that is far greater than the minds and hearts of men can understand. We think we know what is the right way, the best way. We think we can decifer His will if we follow formulas laid out for us by religious scholars and those who have gone before us. But... His ways are not our ways.

⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹  For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰  “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
     giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

                                                                   ~Isaiah 55:8-11

He will accomplish that which He purposes. How comforting is that? How freeing is that truth? Despite us, despite our plans, our foilbles, our foolishness and our distrust... He will not be hindered.  

 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.       ~Romans 8:28

All things... And nothing can separate us from Him...

  ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  ~ Romans 8:38-39

Not the things that people think or say. Not the things that they do or did. Not time, or space or distance. None of these things can hinder Him, His love, and His purposes.

Today, I've been thinking alot about three children that lost their sweet Mama. Thinking about a husband who held his wife just days after thier 15th anniversary as she went to be with the Lord. All day I've been hearing about how Saturday night Laura "lost her battle with cancer". I guess that's technically true, but something about it doesn't seem right. I look at Laura's life and I see the way she fought and the way that through the hard she still sought Christ. I see the legacy that she has here for her children, the impact she has left on the lives and hearts of so many. Who can say that she has lost? Though it is heartbreaking that she is no longer with her family here, that she can not come back to hold and help and even simply be with them... this woman was not conquered. I don't know why God chose to bring her home now, in this way, but I know that it was what He had purposed for her. I know that she knew that, I know that she did not fear. How beautiful, even in the mourning, for her husband and children and the world to see that she did not fear. Even in the loss, to see the gain and to know His ways are best...

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Romans 8:8

I know that Laura lives. No longer on earth, but forever with Christ. And if she lives with Christ, then how can she have lost? 

This is what God has taught me through Laura's life, and now her death... Whether God calls me home in an hour or when I'm old I know that His timing, His ways, His purposes are best. I have no need of fear, only thankfulness for each breath, each gift He has given.

So tonight I give thanks for Laura, her family and their faith in the God that will hold them up. I give thanks for the years she spent with them, for all the ways that He used and will continue to use her life. 

I give thanks for my own family. That he brought Joe and I together and brought these dear sweet children into our lives. 

I am so thankful that His ways are not our ways and that all His purposes will be accomplished regardless of our limited understanding of them. I am so thankful that we need not fear. 

It is so good not to fear...