I was reading through the gospel of John several years ago when chapter 9:1-3 broke through my garbled mind. Jesus and His disciples were walking along when they came to a man who was born blind from birth. His disciples wondered why this man had been born that way. Was it because of the sin of the man himself, or the sin of his parents? But Jesus stated in verse 3:
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned … but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
When we went through the trauma of losing our second son within a 5-month period we actually had someone make say to us, “There must have been some sin in your life that brought all this about.”
As I read through this passage I felt the Lord reaffirming to me that it was not because of anything that my husband or I did that caused these things to happen – these events came about because He was going to use all these things to help others in their grief.
Trust me when I say deep down I would have preferred God to use us in a different way, yet I know after coming to know Him in a personal and deep meaningful way that this was the way it had to be.
I know deep down in my heart that this individual did not mean to crush us by his/her words. Yet the words did crush us – to the core… Quite frankly, the only one who really knows why things happen as they do is our Lord.
Living in this world is definitely not easy. So many times people say things which hurt us; and then we get on the defensive and strike back with bitter words of our own!
How many times a week do you start to question God – why did this have to happen to me, Lord? Yet God never promised us that life on this earth would be easy. In John 16:33(b) Jesus tells the disciples: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Reach out to Him when you are struggling; and look up to where someday you will be safe and snug in His presence face-to-face forevermore!
The God Of All Comfort 