Friday's Faith ~ God Saves...In the Womb and In the Tomb

What the caterpillar sees as the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

~ Richard Bach ઇઉ

Friday's Faith

God Saves...In the Womb and In the Tomb

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A grieving mother, Sharon Throop related the following:

We lost our only daughter, Wendy, (14) years ago (11/12/96). I was just sent a prose, that sums up so much for so many who walk this road. You may have read it before, but if not, send it on to some of your friends and realize that it sums up the loss of our children.

Feel incomplete? Life in suspense? Can you accept the anxiety of not being in control, while trusting in the "slow work of God, our loving Vine-dresser"?

Can you "give our Lord the benefit of believing that His hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete"?

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God Saves...In the Womb and In the Tomb

God who saved me in the womb,

Saved my baby in the tomb!

"I will help you. Do not fear.

Call on Me, and I'll draw near."

Draw near when TRAUMA o'ertakes,

Shatters peace ~ my spirit quakes!

"Draw near, My baby girl...

Hide in Me like th' oyster's pearl."

Father God, I'm so afraid,

Thrown down by Satan, flat laid...

"Trust Me. Treasures in Darkness

Will meet you in Death's Starkness.

I who carved you in the womb,

Will not leave you in Death's Tomb.

Follow Me and I will lead,

Come to Me; upon Me feed.

Though you're helpless as a babe,

I'm your God, mighty to save!"

Jesus, hold Your little lamb,

I'm Your child, weak as I am...

*****

"I will give you the treasures of darkness,

riches stored in secret places,

so that you may know that I am the LORD,

the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

For the sake of Jacob my servant,

of Israel my chosen...

I am the LORD, and there is no other,

apart from Me there is no God.

I will strengthen you...

so that from the rising of the sun

to the place of its setting

men may know there is none besides Me.

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

~Isaiah 45:3-6 NIV

*****

Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.

~ Rabindranath Tagore ♡

Wednesday's Woe - The Great Grief Brings The Great Battle

Wednesday's Woe

The Great Grief Brings The Great Battle

I am blown away by the pain of another

Grieving Mother.

Pain interred, pain incurred,

Pain endured, pain insured,

becomes pain inured.

Facing death all day long,

not just death, death of our child,

our precious one.

How do we deal with pain 24/7/365,

year in year out,

not just pain,

the worst pain...

A pain that is "flesh-eating," as it

eats at your heart, always gnawing,

ever tearing, breaking, wrenching,

until it feels you must have no heart left,

except that... it is...

for it still hurts.

Its flesh cannot be destroyed

because this parent's heart ever loves,

even when the child isn't here to love,

it goes on loving.

And yet the pain continues to

masticate, crunch, grip, rip, tear,

no matter how masticated, pulverized,

decimated, ripped, torn, beaten, shorn,

the heart will not stop,

the heart will not give up the loving...

No matter the pain, no matter the hurt,

no matter the pulverization,

no matter the debilitation,

no matter the exhaustion,

no matter the brokenness,

no matter the dysfunctional life,

no matter others' expectations,

no matter...

Love goes on, the heart keeps loving.

Yet the pain is unrelenting...

until it has to stop...

but not here...never here...

not until...

Heaven...

when the Great Physician says,

"Stop.

There will be no more death,

or dying, or grief, or tears...or pain."

And on that final day,

the heart will know,

Love Wins.

*****

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said,

“I am making everything new!”

Then He said,

“Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

He said to me:

“It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children..."

~Revelation 21:1-7 (capitalizations mine)

Picture - Thanks to http://HoangNguyen.cgsociety.org/gallery/464305/

Poem - The Great Grief Brings The Great Battle - Angie Bennett Prince - 9/17/10

Scripture from New International Version, 2010

Friday's Faith- In Grief, We Groan even as God Groans... ~Tommy and Angie Prince

Friday's Faith

In Grief, We Groan even as God Groans...

~Tommy and Angie Prince

The Spirit is not always experiencing joy. Think of what the Spirit goes through on our behalf, the groans, the deep pleadings, and I wonder how that might be related to our suffering...

We don't have enough appreciation for suffering - there's a lot of groaning and moaning to be done. We do not have yet the hope that we are hoping for or it could not be called "hope," for hope is not hope that already has what's hoped for. Who hopes for what he already has? Who has seen what he is hoping for? Hope that is seen is no hope at all. And to not have it is to suffer, to wait, to long for, and hopefully to learn patience as we await it.

That is the job of our mourning, to adapt to this horrible reality that we do not have what we are yet hoping for...and that will involve much groaning, much hurting, many tears, indeed, guttural cries in missing our beloved, in longing for our beloved, in grieving a present world that no longer contains our beloved. It is not right that she is not here, but she is not and to THAT we must adapt?

A woman wrote me today that my description on my blog about being in the middle of "tough love" with my daughter was actually, in her opinion, being in the middle of "LOVE" for my daughter, "REAL LOVE," for real love is not all about "feel good" love. I wept when I read it.

And neither is our Lord's love for us all about "feel good" love. He groans for us. In our distress, He is distressed. In our sorrow, He sorrows. In our weeping, He weeps alongside us. To not know this kind of suffering is to not know our Lord, for He "is a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." This world is not as He wants it. This world greatly misses His mark. It is not the loving world He created it to be.

And it is in this context of suffering, of groaning...the creation groaning, we are groaning, the Spirit groaning for us that His spirit inspires Paul to say...

"But we know that in all things God works together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

But He did not say we would necessarily "feel good" in the midst of His working those things out. Indeed, He warned us we would suffer. And not only that we would suffer, but that we would suffer like Him...*

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"Who never ate his bread in sorrow,

Who never spent the midnight hours

Weeping and waiting for the morrow,

--He knows you not, ye heavenly powers."

~Goethe

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Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.

Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

--Psalm 130, ~Psalm 130, De profundis, King James Bible version

מִמַּעֲמַקִּים קְרָאתִיךָ יְהוָה.
אֲדֹנָי, שִׁמְעָה בְקוֹלִי:
תִּהְיֶינָה אָזְנֶיךָ, קַשֻּׁבוֹת-- לְקוֹל, תַּחֲנוּנָי.

Picture and Scripture: http://www.consolatio.com/2008/06/from-the-depths.html

*Romans 8:18-28

Jesus' Suffering: Isaiah 63:9, Isaiah 53:3, Matthew 23:37, Matthew 26:38, Mark 14:33, Luke 14:27,33; Luke 9:23-24, Luke 6:20-22, Mark 8:34-37, John 11:35, John 12:27

*Our Suffering: Matthew 5:3-12, Matthew 10:16-25, Matthew 16:24-25, Matthew 20:23,26-28 Matthew 24:9, John 12:23-26, John 15:18-21, John 16:1-4,20-22,33, John 17:13-18

Tuesday's Trust - Summer from Grief's Well

Tuesday's Trust

Summer from Grief's Well

"Your front yard has gone to hell,"

Said a neighbor to us today...

Such is life from th' pit of Grief's Well,

Trying to hold Grief's "weeds" at bay:

Trauma's grief, Grief's trauma ~ When

Is there time to maintain a yard?

Drought is here. Which to water then...

Drought of the yard, or Drought of th' heart

When both the yard – and our grief – be hard?

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I was talking to a client today who said she was memorizing some scripture verses. Imagine my surprise when I looked the scripture up and found God's sweet confirmation that as we trust in Him,

He ministers to us even in whatever "drought" in which we may find ourselves:

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.

He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes, its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

~Jeremiah 17:7

Or, in the Message...

But blessed is the man who trusts Me, GOD, the woman who sticks with GOD. They're like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers– Never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, Serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season.

~Jeremiah 17:7 The Message

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Also...

The poor and needy search for water, but there is none, their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel will not forsake them.

~Isaiah 41:17

Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.

~Deuteronomy 32:2

The poor and homeless are desperate for water, their tongues parched and no water to be found. But I'm there to be found, I'm there for them, and I, God of Israel, will not leave them thirsty. I'll open up rivers for them on the barren hills, spout fountains in the valleys. I'll turn the baked-clay badlands into a cool pond, the waterless waste into splashing creeks.

~Isaiah 41:17-18 The Message

I will bless them.... I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.

~Ezekiel 34:26b

Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear;

He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.

~Hosea 6:3

Picture: Thank you to Eva Soulu for her amazing art... http://soulu.cgsociety.org/gallery/

Poem - Summer from Grief's Well - Angie Bennett Prince - 9/13/10