“She’s doing well,” my friend
responded. “Most days you’d never know
she has ever been sick. She goes to
school, plays and has a very positive attitude.”
“She’s so brave.” I said.
“Well, she is, but it’s pretty much
all she knows. She’s been fighting it so
long, this is her normal.”
Another family has been dealing with
a similar circumstance: a child who is fighting cancer. This little guy has spent most of four of his
five years in a hospital, with the emphasis, on “in.” Yet, he’s a very positive, busy, loving
little boy.
We
adults cry as our hearts break, praying, asking, “Why my child? When will it be
over?” We scream it’s not fair, spend sleepless nights wondering if it was
somehow our fault and worry if everything is going to be all right.
Then we look at these courageous
children. As my friend described: they
play, they love, and persevere, all with child like faith that everything is
going to be just fine. There are times
when we find them consoling us.
One young man I know is fighting
heart disease. His mother told him she’d
very much like to make him well, if there was just something she could do. His response:
“I don’t. That’s not God’s
design. God is Sovereign. There is a purpose behind everything that
happens. God is in control and I will
trust Him. If He wants to heal me, he
will. If not, then I will deal and wait
to see what God wants me to do with my life, and serve Him, even as I wait.” What an amazing perspective!
Still as parents we wonder, even as
we try to give the fight to The Lord.
Why my child? But then, why any
child? Why anyone? Why do we have deal with sickness, pain,
sadness, violence, brokenness, poverty, hunger, death or anything that is ugly? Why?
We live in a fallen world. While we can’t always “fix” what is wrong, we
have choices. We choose how we respond
to situations. We can choose to be
angry, place blame, ask why, and allow our lives to be filled with
bitterness. Or we can choose to respond
like those two young children fighting cancer, and the young man with heart
disease; with the belief they were put on this earth for a reason and rather
than foster ugliness in their heart, project joy, acceptance, and a positive
attitude.
God promises to always be with
us. It doesn’t mean we won’t face trials
and have problems, sometimes really big ones!
And we won’t always understand why.
It’s even safe to say we won’t usually know why, but we don’t have
to. God is Sovereign and knows the
beginning from the end. Our job isn’t “to
know”…. It’s to trust and lean on a God
who loves us so much, He sent Jesus.
When we lean on Him, we can experience comfort and peace which passes
all understanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment