Our third grandchild is due any day now.
I cannot wait to rock him; to gently circle my hand over his tiny back, humming Bye, Baby Bunting, softly, as I did for our first two grandbabies, and our own little ones long ago.
What a holy calling to love and serve our children’s children. My heart and hands are full with these souls created by God, the Giver of life.
But before this little one is born, our daughter will experience excruciating pain, labor pangs that feel destructive and unending.
The truth?
That agony is the precursor to life.
While this concept is simple enough to understand regarding childbirth, it is easy to forget that every affliction we face, whether visible to the human eye or invisible to the watching world, is God’s personal invitation to deepen our spiritual life. An exquisite opportunity to grow in our love for Christ, as God shapes us for eternity with him.
Dear Christian, while our sufferings often feel excruciating and unending, let us press on and believe God, who calls our afflictions light and momentary, and who lavishes us with tender compassion.
The best news is that even though our vision is dim, God sees the entire scope of our life, from beginning to end, and keeps us safely in his hands, through every affliction. I have seen magnificent beauty sparkle through the intense suffering of two of God’s saints–ordinary women who have treasured Christ through heartache.
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Collen Chou has battled cancer for many years, living longer than doctors deemed possible. Be encouraged and strengthened as you watch this beautifully tender video, filmed several years ago. Would you please pray for Colleen and her family, as you hear her recent update?
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There is another woman who impacts me, still.
Seventeen years ago, Rachel Barkey spoke to a group of women shortly before she died, her speech entitled Death is Not Dying. God used her to awaken my soul, and I am eternally grateful.
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)
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
(Romans 5:3-5)
The Palest Ink 