It’s so hard for us to fully understand the way God loves us. How can we ever understand the concept that, no matter what we do, God loves us? How can we even begin to comprehend the fact that God is jealous for us?
I believe that God gives us examples in our daily lives that show us a snapshot of what his love is all about. These snapshots are all around us, and we sometimes forget what they look like. We become so used to them that we have to be hit over the head to start recognizing them again.
I believe that God gives us examples in our daily lives that show us a snapshot of what his love is all about. These snapshots are all around us, and we sometimes forget what they look like. We become so used to them that we have to be hit over the head to start recognizing them again.
I was hit over the head this summer. God blessed me by giving me a beautiful picture of the way he helps us through our pain and suffering.
After my first surgery, I experienced a few unexpected reactions. These complications caused me to be in so much pain that for the first few days, I could not sleep. Each night was a little different. Some nights, I would watch a few movies in bed, hoping I would eventually just fall asleep. Other nights, I would put on music to try to distract my mind from the pain. But one thing always remained constant during these restless nights: My mom was always right by my side.
One night, I woke up late into the night and was in so much pain that I could not go back to sleep. My mom took my hand in hers and started speaking to me to distract me from the pain. I still had a few more hours to go before I could take more pain medication, so all she could do was sit there with me, holding my hand and talking to me.
My mom didn’t take my pain away from me. She didn’t give me any medicine because it wasn’t time for that yet and would not have helped me in the long run. But she sat there with me and helped me through the pain. She spoke to me even when I didn’t respond. She told me I could squeeze her hand as hard as I wanted to and said she would stay next to me for as long as I needed her to.
Not until I was talking to a friend about this did I realize that God used my mom to paint a picture of his love for me. We all have different physical, mental and spiritual pain in our lives. Just because we are in pain does not mean that God is not with us. It’s just not time for our medication yet. We would not be able to respond to healing in the way that God intends if he healed us automatically every time.
But that does not mean he doesn’t care. It does not mean that he is not speaking to us, coaching us through the pain and telling us that we can hold on to him as hard as we can and for as long as we need to.
The pain I felt this summer was not something that I enjoyed. But from that pain came a stronger relationship with my mom. She showed me what the love of Jesus looks like. All the pain we go through in life can teach us something. And if we so choose, we can gain a better relationship with Christ through the pain. We just have to listen to his voice and let him walk us through the pain. Because the pain will not last forever. But God’s faithfulness does last forever.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
