Learning to Take Nothing for Granted
It has been a busy week! August has a tendency of sneaking up on me. I feel like there is plenty of summer left and boom, I turn the calendar page and only a few weeks separate me from the schedule and responsibilities of another school year.
I look forward to the routine and pattern of the fall and feel very blessed to have kids in college and high school. My middle son is leaving home for the first time. As the date approaches for him to load up his little ’94 green 4-door, I find a lump in my throat more often, and tears in the back of my eyes as I realize that we will be saying goodbye until Christmas. But if everything goes according to plan, he will come back. We will be happy to see each other and I will be relieved to see for myself that he is well.
Then I think of the shootings that happened just a few weeks ago in Aurora, CO on July 19. Parents just like you and I went to bed July 18, while their kids went off to an opening night movie. Perhaps some waited up while others (like me) went to sleep knowing their offspring would gently wake them when they had returned home safe. Those parents didn’t expect a middle of the night shooting. They didn’t expect for their son to throw himself in the line of fire to save a life. They didn’t expect their loved ones to never come home again. Those parents ended up in the middle of a nightmare. They expected life and faced death.
How painful it is to the Lord when one of his people dies!
(Psalm 116:15 GNT)
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
(Psalm 34:18 NLT)
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds
[curing their pains and their sorrows].
(Psalm 147:3 AMP)
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.
Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow
—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
(Romans 8:38 NLT)
Dear Lord, thank You for being with the families in Colorado whose grief is still raw. Please help us to accept that we can predict typical days but we can’t prevent terrible ones. The world we live in is too sinful to ever be perfectly safe. Thank You for holding our futures, our hopes and our worries, from our children to our daily needs. Thank You, Lord, that Your Son overcame death, so that when we pass from this life we will live with You forever. In Jesus name, amen.
Written by Mary M. Wilkins
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