by Chad Lewis on October 6, 2005
I have recently been reflecting on an idea that still boggles my mind and still gives me comfort. In the midst of intense turmoil and loneliness a few years ago, God impressed something on my heart that has left a lasting impression.
The impression had to do with vision. My vision was limited to the circumstances and my pain in the moment. I had felt that God had been distant and things seemed to be crumbling around. All of life seemed to closing in around me and then came this thought.
Although God saw me in my pain, He saw much more than that. He not only sees all of the past and the present, He sees all of the tomorrows that will ever be. The reality is that God sees us now in our pain, but He also sees the joy that this pain will produce as it drives us to Him and is used in our sanctification.
It would be like this for some. Though you may be incredibly alone and realing inside right now, longing for a mate, God sees you in the midst of that struggle. But if He has it in His plan for you to marry, He can see you in the joy of your wedding day. He is willing to walk us through the valley for greater purposes than we can imagine. If being comfortable was what we needed most, I’m sure it would be on the top of His list to give to us. But we need something far more than human external comfort. We need Him.
So remember this and read some chapters from Isaiah 40 on and remember that our God sees tomorrow and He is in control. He is involved in the intimate most details of our lives and He is at work.
It is as we remember this that we can say, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord.”
by Chad Lewis on August 23, 2005
My dear friends Jenn and Jason Marshall went through every parents worst dream. After a long and trying pregnancy, little Pruitt Marshall was born with severe complications and with doctors not believing this baby would live past a few days in the hospital.
Most would have thought that abortion would have been the obvious choice, but this is not a choice for those trusting God with the beginning and ending of all life. My friends were courageous. They had doubts. They shed tears. They fought for their babies life and little Pruitt went home to be the Lord after a little more than a month on this earth.
Through it all, God’s grace has been and IS sufficient. Many might ask, “How could this be God’s will?” I answer with Isaiah 55:8 and 9. God’s ways are so much higher than our ways. We can speculate on 100’s of reasons that this was God’s plan. He is working them all for the good of Jenn and Jason and their family. God will use this so that my friends can comfort others with the story of God’s all sufficient grace within a fallen world filled with heartache, pain and loss. God is conforming them to trust in Him more and to make them look more like Him. God is healing old wounds and allowing fear to die. God is doing more than we can dream or imagine.
So I conclude with a poem Jenn wrote not long before her baby died. It follows…
Out Came the Son
There is a little nursery rhyme
We all know so well
About a teeny-tiny spider
His story we can tell.
But this is our story,
One of joy and pain,
And how, just like the spider,
We’ll go up the spout again.
See, for so long the rain has poured
And mixed in with the tears.
The storm rages all around us,
Bringing questions, doubts, and fears.
Yet even in the midst of night,
When the clouds turn grey,
The Son’s light falls upon us,
His mercies new each day.
He gives us hope, He gives us peace,
We are strengthened in our faith.
How we make it through the trials,
Is only by his grace.
At times we thought the rain wouldn’t end,
Then a glimpse we’d get,
Of a ray of sonshine
To remind us, He’s not done yet.
The flowers bloomed because of the rain,
The grass grew green and tall.
Miracles came that some had said
Would never come at all.
So through the storm we’re learning things,
To get us through each day.
And just in time, out comes the Son,
And dries our tears away.
So when you sing a little rhyme,
About a spider and a spout,
Remember, tho the rain may fall,
The Son, ALWAYS comes back out.
Deepest Blessings,
Chad
I have recently been reflecting on an idea that still boggles my mind and still gives me comfort. In the midst of intense turmoil and loneliness a few years ago, God impressed something on my heart that has left a lasting impression.
