…A time to break down, and a time to build up—Ecclesiastes 3:3 (KJV)
There are moments in this walk that the Holy Spirit brings about the perfect trifecta—a scripture verse, message, and a reminder of how good God is in a very short span of time. That’s what I experienced this morning (Tuesday, March 28th) when I sat before Him in my quiet time.
It all started when I opened up a tiny devotional—Daily Guideposts: 40 Devotions for Lent. Our church gave out this booklet the Sunday before Ash Wednesday to help us prepare for the Easter season. I’ll admit, some of them don’t move me, but todays did. Not Marilyn Morgan King’s story as much as her poem at the end of it:
Sometimes a run-down house has to be razed, so a better-built home can take its place.
Remember the boy who broke your heart in junior high?
You thought you’d surely die!
Now at the other end of life, you have true love, and it’s so much more
than cotton-candy words, hand-holding walks and kisses after dances.
It’s sharing common interests; listening with the heart and knowing you can trust each other.
Still I must speak a hard truth to you:
Most things break, my dear.
But here’s the reason:
The new can come forth only when the old is out of the way.
This was a beautiful reminder to me that God is so good. It wasn’t a junior high crush I lost several years ago—it was a 22-year marriage. At the time, I thought my life was over. Abandoned, divorced, unwanted…those were the labels that played in my mind for several months.
But God is so good.
That poem hit especially hard since just yesterday, someone entered a Christian school in Nashville and killed three nine-year-old children and three adults. My husband also traveled yesterday to Mississippi where a horrific tornado took at least 27 lives and completely decimated an entire farming community. He’s a Billy Graham Chaplain serving with Samaritan’s Purse to minster to those devasted by this tragedy.
But God is so good. The longer I live, the more I am certain of this. I’m sitting here writing this today, because the Lord had a bigger, better plan than one I could foresee. I’m now married to an amazing, godly man with a heart to serve those in need. Is there a guarantee that I’ll still have all this tomorrow? No.
Corrie Ten Boom said, “Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.” It’s when we hold so tightly to what we have—relationships, dreams, desires—that we forget that we are not our own. We were bought for a very steep price—the blood of Jesus Christ. Yes, God gives and takes away, but never without a plan and purpose, even when we can’t see it in the midst of our pain.
‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’ Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)
I pour my heart out every day to the Lord that He might bring good in the wake of the evil we are surrounded by. But I don’t want to get so caught up in the ugliness that I miss the beauty He brings into our lives, as well. This time of year, I need only open my ears to hear the birdsongs coming from the trees surrounding our home. Walk outside and see new growth sprouting from the ground, flowers blooming, the rustling of new leaves in the trees.
It was only a short time after I’d finished my Bible reading and prayers that I tuned into a Christian music station and heard Francesca Battistelli’s song, “God is Good.” First the scripture verse, then the message, and here is the reminder. I hope you enjoy this song as much as I did.
