I’m so glad y'all are here with me! It is encouraging to have a community of believers studying alongside me. We need community. Always, but especially since COVID-19 came in like a wrecking ball and crashed right through all our plans over the past several months. While I'm thankful not to have suffered any serious losses, I did still miss an important event: the birth of my first grandson.
I wanted to be there to whisper words of encouragement and wisdom in my daughter’s ears. That didn’t happen. I wanted to hold her hand and tell her everything would be just fine. That didn’t happen either. I wanted to see her face when she saw his face for the first time. None of that happened. I was angry because nothing was the way I imagined it would be.
When everything goes smoothly and according to (my) plan, it's easy to say I trust God. But when life gets hard and things don't seem fair, trust can sometimes go out the window. That's when we need to remind ourselves what we know about God. The words on the bottom of page 87 help us understand: “We have to trust God at His Word because we know that He is working everything together for our good.”
Maybe I couldn’t be there with my daughter, but I could choose to trust God and do the next best thing, and that’s just what I did.
I sat in the parking lot and waited. And prayed. And cried. As time for the birth grew closer, I literally stood in a parking garage directly across from her room. I stared at the window for hours, until at last I caught a little glimpse of the sweet baby I was so anxious to meet.
Sweet sister, we may long to be rescued from the mess and chaos of life, but let’s remember that although our circumstances constantly change, God's Word remains the same.
In today’s reading, we see the people of Israel exiled. Even in these dire circumstances, God was still at work. We begin on page 88:
Alicia
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How has your life felt unfair this year? How has trusting God at His word helped you get through?