In the Old Testament when God wanted to
guarantee a promise, he made an oath. He gave his own word based on his own
character because it’s the most unbreakable, unchangeable thing there is.
There’s nothing more sure than Himself. Because He cannot change, the promise
is likewise unchangeable. When
we run to God for our very lives we get to grab the promised hope of what He is
offering and what we need with both hands.
He is a perfect, reliable lifeline in all situations,
reaching past all circumstances right to the very presence of God because of
Jesus.
In
a move of jaw-dropping love and pure genius, God’s actual word became flesh.
Jesus went ahead of us so that we can cling to God in the first place. Because
of the certainty of the access to the one and only Holy God, I can agree with the
verses in James 1 and truly consider it a pure and worthy
gift when tests and challenges come at me from all sides. When we face the heat
of our fallen circumstances, when we are under immense pressure from whatever
source, our hearts are forced open to show their true colors. Because of this,
I plead with God to help me stand firm in trials because He promises that if I don’t
try to get out of it prematurely, the trial will do what He promises it will do
for me. I’ll be made perfect. I’ll be whole. I won’t lack anything good or
anything I need… regardless of how I feel
right now. I’ll be made mature and well equipped. Yes, it’s for my benefit,
because that’s how He works. And in my head I hear many of you say, “but isn’t
it for God’s glory?!”
Yes. And in his outrageously loving way, He created our lives
so that His glory is intricately woven with our good. And my heart is made
whole, no matter how much it aches today.
Having one
miscarriage was hard. I naively handled it like a sad and disappointing speed
bump. Having a second miscarriage only months later, quite frankly, feels like
I’ve been raped by the Fall. And the thing is, I know lots of truth. I counsel
people all the time through absurdly hard tragedies, heartbreaks and sin
struggles. And I’m so thankful that God has given me truth and put me in a
place where I can fiercely say, “I believe!” But believing in God’s perfect
character and love for me doesn’t take the heartache away.
The difference is… that truth makes the heartache worth
something.
The gratitude I
have for my almost two-year-old is now without warrant. But in some ways, it
makes enduring this so much harder. When I look at her, I’m given the picture
of what those two other little babies would have looked like. The mannerisms
they may have had. The curvature of her neck and the way she giggles when her
daddy plays with her. I wonder if they would have had those same ringlets and
button nose.
Daniel
Bedingfield wrote a song called “Honest Questions” that always comes to mind in
difficult seasons. He wrote, “Can you see honest questions in my heart this hour opening
like a flower to the rain? And do you know the silent sorrow of a never-ending
journey through the pain? Do you see a brighter day for me?... Oh look down,
see the tears I've cried, lives I've lived, the deaths I've died. You died them
too. And all for me. And You say, ‘I will pour my water down upon a thirsty,
barren land and streams will flow from the dust of your bruised and broken soul.
You will grow like the grass upon the fertile plains of Asia by the sea. You will
grow, You will grow. Do you know the story from the start? And do you know me
like you've always told me? Do you see the whispers in my heart against your
kindness, my eternal blindness?”
Do
you see the whispers in my heart against your kindness (my eternal blindness)? It takes my breath away.
If I was never thirsty and
barren, there’d be no kindness needed, but more… no Redeemer needed. Right now,
though, it feels like this heartache isn’t going to ever leave me and I’m
branded for life. When I think of countless friends who have gone through many
more miscarriages or abuse or betrayal or death of loved ones, I’m so tempted
to numb myself when I walk by the aisle of pregnancy tests and feminine
products in the drugstore (no one warned me that would be hard!)
But there’s also another side to
it…
It propels me to worship with my friends who do have healthy babies
and are raising their children to be salt and light in a world ridden by the
Fall that took mine away from me. It drives
me to hate sin that was inducted into the world once God had created
something good. It forces me to weep with
those who weep over infertility, adultery, loneliness or death.
But God; He brought a certainty
to hope that’s unwavering.
I realize a lot more can be said
and there are many stones unturned when you bring up a subject like
miscarriages. You can compare yourself to those you feel are better off and
you’ll be embittered. You can compare yourself to those with what seems like
worse stories and you’ be indicted with fear or shame. But for today, I just
want to say that I’m incredibly grateful I get to hold firmly to Hope because I’m
being made “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” through the immense power
of trial.
Isaiah 61:1b-3, “He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from
darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who
grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of
despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord
for the display of his
splendor.”
May this pile of ashes one day be among the oaks of
righteousness.
