When You Pass Through the Fire
I am the God who stirs up the sea so that it’s waves roar. Isaiah 51:15
God watched His son suffer incomprehensibly. He knows our pain. And He has showed us that He can bring incredible redemption through suffering.
I always think of God as bringing peace and protection. Or I remember the story of Jesus who calmed an angry sea with three words. When I read this verse in Isaiah, it helps me remember that God is also in the storm. He isn’t missing or looking the other way just because the storm gets more violent.
With man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. — Jesus
I feel this sureness that no matter what happens to Liam, he is safe with Jesus. That is my bedrock of comfort underneath all of this. How my heart longs for him to be healed completely. It’s not mine to choose.
Our lives, the lives of our children … they are a gift. Every day is a gift. Our desires and longings are legitimate and divinely inspired and we should hold onto them. But they aren’t rights. We can support our bodies to live and live well, but no one has ever gotten to choose to live longer than God gives them breath.
No matter how many times we say those words, we don’t really comprehend them until we are faced with their reality. Today I am grateful for this day. This gift.
He has borne our sorrows. He has carried our grief.
It is the crushing things in life that have, in the long run, enlarged and softened my heart. These things that break us, that crush our spirits — they do not consume us. Our edges are etched and shaped in fire as the smoke blinds us, stinging our eyes, making it hard to breathe, sometimes temporarily paralyzing us with helplessness. But they do not consume us. In the end, we will not be ashes.
Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by my name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Isaiah 43: 1b-3
God didn’t say we wouldn’t walk through fire, but He did promise we would not be burned.
Oh, Jesus, take and keep every anxious thought and replace it with peace and love. So much love coming from a deep, settled place of rest.