In my office closet there is a white fabric box, tied shut with ribbon. Inside are the notes, cards, and verses people shared with us after my miscarriage. I don't open the box often but I have the contents memorized. In the weeks after that difficult 24 hours, I found myself trying to piece together what I could dwell on. I couldn’t focus on the here and now. It was too painful as life went on different than I had planned it to be.
And a common thread through everything I accumulated in that white box was about God. He is good, He is mighty, He is loving, He is powerful. God was {and is} everything that I am not. He wasn’t surprised by my baby’s loss and it didn’t happen because He wasn’t powerful enough to keep my baby protected. Even in the face of grief and sorrow God was {and is} merciful in so many ways.
Years before I participated in a study about the character of God. But unlike some studies, we didn’t just go to certain passages and notice what it said. We simply did our regular Bible reading and noted what it taught about God. We had papers with different headings {God is just, God is true/truth, God is creator, etc} and as we found verses that described Him we would write down the verse/passage under the appropriate heading.
The pages of the Bible are filled with Who He is and my notebook quickly filled up as well. We so often get caught up in wondering how we are to apply God’s Word to our lives that we overlook what the Bible is teaching about the Creator of it all. After losing Addison, I read over those pages and pages of verses, marveling that God was still all of those things. Despite my world spinning - seemingly out of control - God was unchanged. What was true about Him before that doctor’s appointment was true as I walked into the hospital the next day and the day after.
Because I knew God wouldn’t change, I could rest in Him for strength when I was weary, for comfort when I was wrung out, for grace when I didn’t know what I needed. And He is the only one who can offer that.
Photo by Jan Kahanek on Unsplash