This is one that I didn’t really want to write. You see, the
worst thing that happened in your life today was that your muffin got cold
before you finished it at breakfast, and as tragic and understandably
earth-shattering as that was, I would like to think that you can keep living in
that kind of world. But the truth is that today you are seven and five and two,
but tomorrow you will be teenagers and then grown-ups and I have learned that
the older you get, the more the brokenness of this world crowds in on you.
It seems like these days I can taste suffering all around
me. There is hurt in every corner, and though I wish I could hide you three in
my pocket forever, I cannot. It’s not
the way.
So on the days that you suffer…on the days when you fail
miserably or make a terrible mistake, or when your heart gets broken…on the
days when cancer sneaks up on someone you love, or when your trust is betrayed
or you have to endure the valley of loss…on the days when afflictions grow
bigger than you have known them to be so far…on those days, remember this:
The Lord is near to
the brokenhearted…
Near. Closer than a breath, even when you can’t breathe. He
enters in. He already laid aside His glory and put on skin and walked a
thousand miles in your shoes. He took all your sin and swallowed it, became it
so that you could taste righteousness and peace, and so He knows. He knows all
the awful secrets that chase the tail of sin, the emptiness and despair, and He
knows every bit of the pain wrapped up in the fallenness of the world. He knows
it and He enters in. He feels every ounce of what you feel because He is your
compassionate high priest.
So on the days when you suffer, suffer in His nearness. Feel
your pain and grief, but don’t feel it outside of His presence. He enters into
it with you, with groanings too deep for words. Trust in Him at all times and
pour out your heart before Him because He is a refuge.
And saves those who
are crushed in spirit.
There is a promise, and even another one. There is a promise
for the brokenness and a promise for the ages. A promise for now – that no pain
is ever wasted, that He is ever at work for good, that He will make beauty from
ashes. And a promise for later – that one day He will wipe away every tear and destroy
the crushed serpent and make all things new.
Kids, the last thing I want to think about is you suffering,
but I know I can’t stop it. But you have His presence and you have His promise,
and that is worth more than gold. Heavens, I can’t even keep your muffins warm,
but He is a good, good Father, perfect in all of His ways. So on the days that you suffer, cling to Him.
He is enough.
