Five Years Ago……Today……A Compendium of Healing

Five years ago, this week…..

Shock.  Anger.  Sick.  Terrifying fear.

Five years ago, this week…..

Lives shattered.  Unanswerable questions from my children.  Tremendous Grief.

Five years ago, this week……

Forced into the media.  Forced into hiding.   Forced to make decisions no one ever imagines having to make.   Forced to confront evil, penetrating our lives.

Five years ago, this week……

Whole weeks of time gone from memory.  Falling, ever falling, into the unknown.  Is there a God?  Will He be there to catch us?  Does He see?  Does He know?

Five years ago, this week….

No plan.  No answers.  No hope.

Five years ago, this week….

Doubts.  Despair.  Darkness

Intermission: A church drops everything and seeks God.   The people of God, around the world, respond with grace and mercy.  A place to live is provided.  An entire community encourages a broken, hurting, scared family to come “home”.  A school system wraps their arms around the children, making them feel “normal”, wanted, secure.  Prayers are offered.  Food is given.  A job is provided.   A family circles the wagons to heal, begging God to perform the miraculous.  A family becomes tighter to each other, through falling upon the mercy of God.  A mother learns to love at a whole new level.  Children grow. Birthdays come and go.  Christmas comes and goes.   Healing arrives-sometimes in fits and starts, other times in the steady progress of doing what needs to be done day after day.  Scripture sustains.

There is a God.  He does catch us.  He does see.  He does know.  Because of grace.

Five years later, today:

Still grief?  Yes.  Still pain?  Yes.  Still questions?  Yes.  But….

Five years later, today:

Lives renewed.  Many questions answered by Scripture, which has born out as truth over time.  Grief overshadowed by tremendous joy.

Five years later, today:

Starting to live life again.  Birthdays.  Graduations.  Children starting new lives.  New jobs.  New careers.  New school year.

Five years later, today:

Comfort.  Peace.  Purpose. Healing.  It is well, with my soul.

Five years later, today:

Worshiping my God on this Sunday, with my children.  Worshiping God on this day with my church family.

Five years later, today:

Grace.  Grace.  Grace.  Only Grace.

The Future:

The gift of experiencing the truth of scripture day, after day, after day, after day.  Even on the hard days.

1 Thessalonians 3:8 ~ For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.

John 1:16 ~ For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

Psalm 28:7 ~ The Lord is my strength and my shield;
    in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
    and with my song I give thanks to him.

John 6:68-69 ~ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ⁶⁹ and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Habakkuk 3:17-18 ~Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Job 13:15a ~ Though he slay me, I will hope in him

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 ~ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ 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. ⁵ For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.