When We Need Compassion And God's Grace

A mother shared a story about her daughter who had been disabled due to a car accident about 12 years earlier.  One day while driving down the road she (the daughter) noticed a man carrying a huge cross with a flowering wreath around it, on his back, walking down the road.  Feeling compelled, she stopped at a nearby convenience store to buy a bottle of water to carry back to him.  

When she arrived, another man had also stopped; a minister.  The man carrying the cross, she learned, was deaf.  He was carrying the cross in memory of his son who was born on a specific date, and then some years later died on his birthday.  This was the father’s pilgrimage in honor of his son.  He’d planned to arrive to the grave on his son’s birthday.

The daughter was deeply moved by the man’s story for several reasons.  One of those reasons is 12 years earlier, on that exact date of the son's birthday and eventual death, she’d been in a car accident which left her crippled.  She’d never gotten past the pain and anguish of the accident.  On many levels it left her bitter and angry, even though she’d grown up in church.  She could not understand how God could have left her in this place.

While none of us ever wishes to suffer, we live in a fallen world and we are human.  Sin is part of our nature; which is why Jesus had to come and provide the sacrificial death for us.  We’re never going to get it just right, but we must keep trying.

What we can often learn in the midst of our trials and suffering is, to trust God for the right answers. This is the place where we learn.  Sometimes, if we honestly look for it, in retrospect we can look back on it and see where we’ve grown.  

But trials terrify us, leaving us often feeling like we are traveling alone.  God's Word assures us, we don’t.  Even in the twisting and turning of life, God is with us every step of the way.  When we are ready to throw up our hands in despair, fully believing we can’t walk another step, He is there.  He will provide just what we need to get through another day, another hour, even another moment.

He is filled with compassion and grace for us.  He responds to our needs in a variety of ways, which often surprises us.  He doesn’t necessarily take away our pain, but he helps us understand it, and sends other people to go through it with us.  I am witness to this!  God has sent the ideal people in my path over the last nine months as I've traveled the journey of grief.  There have been times I've been astounded by how this has happened.

Without any doubt, I can look back on my life and sees ‘God’s thumbprint’ throughout-- even from my years as a teenager!  He was always with me in the valleys, when things seemed to be going only badly!  But he's also been with me in the good times!  This thought makes me think of the song lyrics of a Gospel song: "God On The Mountain".  (YouTube:   Lynda Randle - God On The Mountain )   He truly is the same God in the Valley as He is on the mountain!  He never fails us, and speaks to us through his Word, prayer and even through other people.  

Grace doesn’t mean we will have smooth paths, immediate healed hearts, or even open doors.  But he does promise His presence, which means Grace will meet us right where we are….in the middle of our struggle and pain.

Photo Credit: Commpassion and Grace