All of life is grace - a gift we cannot earn or achieve; a gift we cannot contain with our hands; a gift that is constant and flowing all at the same time. Grace is always all good even in the midst of circumstances that we deem all bad.
Life is full of disappointments, hurts, grief, and hard times. But it's when we walk through these dark times that God tweaks our vision to see His hand more clearly.
A few months ago, our daughter, Madison, spearheaded the idea of joining a mission team and going halfway around the world, taking the Gospel to the children - the children her best friend, McKinsey, fell head over heels in love with on her first trip to Kampala, Uganda. But because of a tragic car accident, McKinsey went on to heaven before she could finish her nursing degree and return to Uganda to become a full time missionary.
Over two hundred t-shirts later, careful preparation with all t's crossed and i's dotted, shots, passports, funds raised, and much prayer, the time finally arrived to begin packing.
The first thing we were going to pack was her passport. But as we began to search, the passport was nowhere to be found. It had only arrived a couple of weeks earlier and had not left our house. With the house turned upside down, inside out, it seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Time was not on our side when we made this devastating discovery. We did everything possible to get her another one, but to no avail. So, this past Thursday, three of Madi's best friends and Kinsey's mom boarded a plane without our daughter. She was left behind.
How do you explain to a 20 year old that this deep disappointment is a grace gift and a part of God's good plan?
You don't. Well, not at first. The tears are a natural response to the heartache and must be allowed to flow for healing to begin. A mother's shoulder is a safe place for our children to cry and to receive sweet comfort, no matter their ages. The disappointment and sadness must be allowed to be felt and expressed, but carefully guarding against anger and bitterness taking root in a fragile, broken heart.
It's always in the hard and dark times of life where we learn the most about how great God is, and that He always has our best interest at heart. It's always harder to practice the faith we claim to have, believing and trusting in our good and faithful God, when the details of God's grace story include disappointments. But if we never faced suffering and hard times, we would never grow in our faith, nor would we ever think we even need the strength of Christ to face every day.
The lesson I see as we are less than a week out is that none of these close friends or Kinsey's mom would have even considered this trip if it weren't for Madison planting the seed and working so hard to make this trip a reality. What a blessing. The fruit of her labor is that they were able to go.
Learning to look for God's hand in the hard lessons of life are not learned in a day. Sometimes it takes many years, or even a lifetime, to understand the deep love of God for His children to the point of complete and total trust. I'm praying that my adult children learn this lesson early, and to be grateful in all things.
We may never know all of the "whys", but we can cling to God's promises, His protection, His faithfulness, His love, mercy and His amazing grace.
My Pleasure,
Melanie
Comments
Post a Comment