hard providence

God's wisdom is not our wisdom. In the flesh, God's goodness seems unfair, foolish, unreasonable, even mean. and what's even more unfair is that we can't know why He's giving us this particular goodness. but His ways are far above ours. because sin is backwards and turns the world on its head, we look at everything with our head to the ground and our feet in the air. thus, everything holy and good, and often what God sends to us via life seems to us upside down. how can a child born with turner's syndrome be a good thing? that is, where is God's goodness in that? we Christian humans call this a hard providence - something given to us by the hand of the Father which causes us physical, emotional, and/or spiritual pain. it is something "bad" which came unexpectedly, an unrequested gift, and therefore we immediatly think that it can't be good. but if we believe when God says He is good, then our challenge is to find (and believe even when we don't see) the good in what seems bad, unfair, foolish, unreasonable, mean. what makes us think we deserve a life free of hard providences? what do we deserve? we deserve damnation and hell. what have we been given? life in Christ, a life so rich and full we can scarce take it all in...and that's just this life. sin won't be with us forever. what was turned on its head will be righted, the scales will fall off our eyes for good, and we will see more clearly God's wisdom. and we will finally understand that what we thought was a moment of hard providence was really the highest expression of love God could have poured out on us. it was good.

elizabeth joy is in the hospital awaiting a very difficult decision. the options for her at present are either a shunt or a liver transplant. both carry with them life-changing ramifications. both include regular hospitalizations. both exclude a life of normalcy. this is so hard for matt and sara, as they have to choose which of the two no-so-great doors to open. complications loom over both choices, some known and some unknown. for those who are reading this, please pray for this family. they are strong in the Lord's strength, and exhibit wonderful trust in the Lord. elizabeth continues to live up to her namesake: joy. but just because it's good doesn't mean it's easy. so we plead with God for a miracle. we bend our knees and humble our hearts before Him, asking for a rainstorm of mercy. we, like Elijah, bang on the doors of heaven and speak boldly in God's presence for the life of this little one. and we know we can do so because we have been made priests in Christ. Lord, have mercy.