unwavering hope, even in the loss of a child

On Tuesday, my sweet nephew Jacob was in athletics at his high school and collapsed as he was playing. They tried to revive him, but they couldn't. 

And just like that, a healthy 15-year-old boy went to meet Jesus. 

I don't understand it. Not even a little bit. But God does.

My heart is hurting for his mama, my sister-in-law Christy. She is one of the sweetest people I know- and one who loves Jesus like crazy. I do not exaggerate when I say He is her world. She LOVES Jesus. He pours out of her.

sweet Christy, and her youngest, Mia on Christmas Eve

I remember reading her family blog several years ago, and I distinctly remember saying to myself, "I want to love Jesus that much."

All these years later, I look at her and I am still saying it: I want to love Jesus that much.

On January 11, she posted on her blog about her youngest having a seizure, and in response to the scare she said it stirred up something else deep inside of her. She wrote this:

None of us are guaranteed health.  None of us are guaranteed life this day or the next.  None of us.  We do not control what comes into our lives on a grand scale.  We can only choose how to respond when things come up.  I want to respond with full out trust of my God.  I want to wholeheartedly respond with worship.  Because, I also know that He has every right to take any of my children home with Him at any time.  They are all on loan to me from Him.  It is my job to raise them, protect them from harm, and teach them to honor Him with their lives.  But, I have no control.  I do not get to choose which battles they will have to fight in this life, and I certainly can't control the choices they make as those battles come.  I simply have the privilege to teach them what His Word says is best.  I have the honor of relaying His faithfulness to them each day, whatever may come.  I trust Him. 

Hear me when I say I trust Him.  With all of our lives, with everything in our lives.  He will not fail us.  He will not let us down.  He works everything together for our good.  Everything.

25 days later, she lost her firstborn, and still she trusts in Him. He is still her Rock.

On Tuesday night, this is what she wrote:

"Precious friends. Your words of comfort are so sweet to my heart. "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed." Isaiah 54:10. Even in this I will bless the Name of my God who is worthy of all honor and glory and praise for now and forevermore."

Oh friends, I want to love Jesus that much. 

I pray that I will have faith like hers. That I will be able to praise God when that time comes.

I am amazed at His goodness. I don't understand it, but I've seen over and over that He supernaturally draws near to the brokenhearted. He will not forsake us. He won't. I've seen Him uphold the hurting, and it makes me fall to my knees in worship, because it's too great for me to comprehend. It gives me such hope.

He is Holy. And He is good. He will never leave or forsake us.

When husbands are taken unexpectedly, when children pass away- our God is still God. And He still loves us.

Even when our hearts are hurting, He does not abandon us.

That is the GOD we serve. Holy and righteous, and full of love and mercy.

There is no other god like ours.

Psalm 34: 17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. 20 He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.

Sweet friends, will you please pray hard for her, and for her husband and family? That the Lord would continue to uphold them and be near to them? And for the extended family, and his friends, and for the other teenagers and the coaches that saw this happen at school- that they might come to know Jesus because of the life sweet Jacob lived, and because of the unwavering hope of His family? 

Oh, thank you so much again for being the body of Christ- for bearing the burdens of others and lifting them up in prayer. I can't tell you how much all of your kind words and prayers for them mean to me. Thank you. 

our family, 2011

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 

2 Corinthians 1:3-4