This week overflowed with struggle and heartache. Friends in pain, a terminal baby boy born and lost, a life-saving transplant seeming just out of reach, a new diagnosis plaguing one who has suffered much already, a beloved teenage boy’s life ending suddenly. My heart has been heavy for people I love whose anguish I cannot ease.
Then yesterday happened.
Everything in me aches for Newtown, Connecticut. My mind still can’t grasp the devastation the families of Sandy Hook are experiencing. 20 CHILDREN murdered. Tears flood my eyes every time I think about it. While our family celebrated Eliana’s first Christmas musical performance at school and laughed at Evan’s entertaining antics, other families were being recklessly shattered. I know the pain of loosing a child, seeing their end near over a long period of time. I cannot begin to fathom the agony of having your child’s life stolen so violently, so senselessly, so brutally! Final words left unspoken, last goodbyes and I love yous never exchanged. Why?! Picking up Eliana from school became a luxury yesterday. Hearing breath fill Evan’s lungs as he slept on my shoulder – a freshly appreciated gift. My mind cannot contain the evil in this world, my heart overwhelmed by the pain it causes.
As thoughts raged and fear loomed closer, the words of a cherished song began to play gently in my mind. Throughout the night and into this morning, Holding Us has grown louder in my ears as the Lord reassured my aching heart. Written by my friend Josh Via during a season of great trial and uncertainty, its words hit home like never before. I hope every person in Newtown…in our country…can hear this song. Written out of suffering and based completely in Truth that never fails, it is a melody of hope for hopeless times. May its truth still your restless heart today, drawing your gaze from fear to faith in God who holds us.
A Life Of Patience 