You've given birth to two healthy children, only to have your third die a month before their due date. The doctors can’t explain why—it just happened. Now you must deliver a child you know is not alive.
Your first born is a beautiful and happy little baby, until
suddenly he’s not so happy anymore and you notice something is not quite right.
Three weeks later he’s completely blind and deaf or shows signs of Autism
setting in.
Life is good; you have the large family you have always
wanted, a good husband who loves God, you and the kids—then bam!! He dies at
the age of 40, leaving you and you kids.
In the back of your mind and heart you know something
is not quite right with your teenage daughter, but you shrug it off to being a
teenager and the drama that comes with that season. But then one day she tells
you, she is a lesbian and denounces God!
While in your twenties you scraped, sacrificed and put your
dreams on hold for your husband to finish college and really get his career
started. Then when he finally gets there, he tells you he wants a divorce—he’s
moving on.
You’re in your early 60’s with no savings and all of a
sudden, no job! You’ve served God, you’ve been as faithful as you could over
the years, and now when things should be easier and more settled, they are
anything but!
The life events you just read I like to call the, “Sucker Punches”
of life! Those things we are not prepared for but show up out of nowhere and
take us down hard! Our initial reaction after the hurt is anger with God. Why?
He allowed it to happen to us. That’s right to us! It is not so bad when it
happens to someone else, even when it’s someone we love, but it is really
something else when it happens directly to us.
Why is it they have 8 kids and they are all healthy? He is
not a good husband or father, but he gets to live? That one is so neglectful of
her children, why does she get to have them and mine die? I raised her to be
a good girl and love you Lord—what does she mean she is a lesbian and denounces
you? I have served you for years Lord, tithing my money, my time and doing
things your way. Why am I broke and finding life so hard in my later years? Why
did he leave me after all I did for him? Why was my child born retarded? Why
did you let him die? Why?!
After we waddle in our anger for awhile then comes self-doubt
and doubts of God’s love us. We question what we have done to bring this on and
why God doesn’t love us.
Truth is—we don’t have to do anything wrong for devastating things
to happen. Yes, there are consequences we must suffer for making poor decisions
and sin in our lives, but that is not always the case. God does allow things to
happen and we don’t always understand or know the reason why. I’m sure Job had
no idea whatsoever. We know his wife didn’t because her final reaction and advice
to him, was to curse God and die. Does that sound like a woman who understood?
Over the years, the people I have met that have children who
were born retarded or with Down Syndrome are some of the most loving people you’ll
ever know. And so are the sibs of these children. God uses the ones our society
deems as broken to teach us how to love in ways we would otherwise not be able
to experience, and show to others.
Until Yeshua comes back, women are going to have still born
babies, miscarriages, children born with birth defects, babies who die of SIDS,
husbands that die young, and ones who abandon them—loss of their money and financial
stability, and children who go astray and are confused as to what they believe.
It is life as we know it, but the beauty in all this sadness and heartache is
the love and healing power of God.
When we read 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, what do we think Paul is
saying here? Do we really think about his words, or do we just gloss over them?
If we are to encourage and comfort others as God has comforted us, then that
means we have to go through something. And it is not the experience of a bruise or a bump. No, deep cutting hurt and pain. It means we have been to the edge
and weren’t sure we were going to survive. We were tempted like Job’s wife to
curse God and die. It’s talking about when our hearts felt like they were
ripped out and we would never be whole again. This is what Paul means here!
For many of us, we have already made it to the other side of
a sucker punch. We are no longer lying on the floor moaning and groaning in
pain. Our blurred vision has slowly become clear again. Our wounds are no
longer tender to the touch or hurt when we move a certain way. Our labored breathing
and shortness of breath has returned to a soft and even flow. The mountains of
tears have given way to laughter. We no longer want to curse God, but instead,
sing praises for all He has done for us. We are now at the point where we are
able to comfort our sisters in their time of trouble.
If you are reeling from the affects of a sucker punch be encouraged because God is
with you. And if you are one who has made it to the other side—Praise Him and
help your sister! Amen!
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