He Gives and Takes Away...

... you know we sing those words, in a worship song "Blessed be your name" ... "You give and take Away" and it's true forsure, but I'm not sure we really grasp that meaning. Sure, we praise when things are given~thank you Lord for what you give. But it is most definitely harder to praise, to worship when He takes away. And is it obvious to our humanness that it is God who does the taking?

Sometimes it's a job, a home, maybe a circumstance, maybe an addiction. All of which could be easier to spin to your benefit (esp of course the addiction). Those losses are "meant to be" and something better will come along.

But inevitably at some point in time it will be a mother, a father, a brother or sister, sometimes, a child. And those losses are harder to stomach, harder to understand and more difficult to digest. In the case of a child, we don't want to think that it's God's plan and purpose to take away an innocent life. We certainly don't want to think that God wants them to suffer under an incurable disease that will slowly leach the life out of them, in front of their parents tear filled eyes.

But, it happens. And I am choosing to believe that it is part of God's plan that I do not understand. In the book of Job, God speaks to this father, who has lost, almost everything (even his very health) If anyone had reason to cry to God "WHY" it would be him, yet God answers ... (this is from Job 38)

¹ Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:

² "Who is this that darkens my counsel
with words without knowledge?

³ Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.

⁴ "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.

⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?

⁶ On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone-

⁷ while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?

⁸ "Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,

⁹ when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,

¹⁰ when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,

¹¹ when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt'?

¹² "Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,

¹³ that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?

The Lord's answer goes on, but quite obviously, the Lord is God, and we are man there is no questioning His judgements.

Little Christopher went to be with Jesus at 4 a.m. today. And before I found out, I had gone for a run and was looking up into our "May Gray" skies of puffy misty ocean layer and bits of fragile blue and I did think ... "I wonder if he's up there yet".

I know that when someone passes that the common response is RIP; Rest in Peace. But something quite small, and slightly joyful, tells me that Little Christopher is probably not "resting". Rather, I picture him rejoicing. Free from the pain of his cancers. Running, laughing and being face to face with Jesus.

It shouldn't be a sad time, yet we still mourn. I can't even begin to imagine the heartbreak for his parents. But the Lord does give and take away. So, will we now worship him even in these times of sadness? As hard as it is, I hope so.

Till Next Blog.
love, a.