Beauty for Ashes

Two of my best friends brought home babies this past week.  At the stage of life I am in having a friend bring home a baby is a regular event, but there was something extra special about both of these babies coming home to their families.  One sweet girl (who happens to be betrothed to B) came home with her parents almost exactly a year after her momma went through a miscarriage.  One sweet boy was carried through the door of his parents home after 3 years of infertility and almost a year of working on adoption paperwork and waiting to get the phone call that a family had chosen them.  

I have thought a lot about these babies and their mommas over the last week.  Both of these women went through battles and struggles before bringing their new little ones home.  I was challenged to grow stronger in my relationship with the Lord as I watched them.  Perhaps the thing that sticks out most in my mind is how honest they both were through their grieving process; one grieving the loss of a specific child and the other grieving the loss of the inability to have a child.  They didn’t try to put on a “spiritual happy face” and pretend that they felt something they didn’t.  They were honest about their hurt and honest that they didn’t necessarily understand why God had chosen this particular path, but yet they both in their own ways showed a complete trust in who God is.  They were unwavering in their resolve that God was in control.  I guess that is what having a true relationship with Jesus Christ is about.  He wants us to be honest.  He wants us to pour out our hurt, our fear, and our disappointment, but it can’t stop there.  We have to give it to Him to handle and watch Him change us, refine us in the process.  And in the middle of all of it we have to know and hang on to who we know God to be: sovereign, all wise, all knowing, loving, and kind.

“a crown of beauty instead of ashes.” Isaiah 61:3