Our Hope
Tuesday I got a call that a special young woman in our church family lost one of her eight week old twin boys. Immediately my heart broke to pieces. Why God allows the death of children is one of those questions I have for Him. Why this little life? Why any little life? Why didn’t He step in? The why’s continue to run through my mind; but while I’m on the outside asking why, this mama is devastated. This young family is heartbroken in a way that will change their lives forever. Not a day will go by without them thinking about this little life and why he isn’t here. What would he have looked like? What would his laugh be like? What would he have enjoyed doing? The questions are endless.
The love that God infuses the heart of a mama with is something special and deep. I never understood it until I had my own. It doesn’t matter if you get 1 hour, 1 day, 1 month, 1 year, or 1 lifetime, the love that you have for your children just can’t be explained. It is deep. It is strong. It is powerful; and the pain of loss has to be overwhelming.
I also got news this week of some other major things going on in some of my friends’ lives and it breaks my heart at the hard stuff that people are facing: sickness, life change, heartache, death. Life just doesn’t make sense sometimes. It doesn’t seem fair.
As I laid my head on my pillow last night, the faces of my hurting friends ran through my mind. As I laid there, praying for each one, the verse from Romans 12 kept running through my mind, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” I don’t know what to say to my friends. I don’t know what that special, magic phrase is that they need to hear to make it all better. I don’t know what they may need to get through the next moment…but I’ve got two arms that I can wrap around their necks and two eyes that can cry when they cry. I was reminded last night that no matter what the circumstances of life may hold, Christ has to be our hope. He has to be the rock that we hold on to or else everything will fall. We have to trust His sovereignty. We have to trust His heart.
As I think about my friends, this old hymn keeps running through my mind. I wish I could explain life. I wish I had the answers. I wish we could turn back time. But instead we have to trust and place our hope in Him.
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness, alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
