A friend sent me an email the other day that made me stop and think . I am very grateful to Holly for sending this to me because it made me realize what I was doing . I was wrong. I was becoming very angry with God for letting Teresa suffer and not healing her. When life is wonderful and you have health , wealth and happiness , it is very easy to have faith . When you are surrounded with suffering and hard times your faith is really tested and it easy to question God , Why ?...
Here is a bit of what Holly sent me .
Elisabeth Elliott, Her husband and four other missionaries were massacred back in the fifties. Here is something she wrote about the death of those five men.
"There is always the urge to oversimplify, to weigh in at once with interpretations that cannot possibly cover all the data or stand up to close inspection. We know, for example, that time again in the history of the Christian church, the blood of martyrs has been its seed. So we are tempted to assume a simple equation here. Five men died. This will mean x-number of Waorani Christians.
Perhaps so. Perhaps not. Cause and effect are in God's hands. Is it not the part of faith simply to let them rest there? God is God. I dethrone Him in my heart if I demand that He act in ways that satisfy my idea of justice. It is the same spirit that taunted, "If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the Cross." There is unbelief, there is rebellion, in the attitude that says, "God has no right to do this to five men unless..."
...
I believe with all my heart that God's story has a happy ending....but not yet, not necessarily yet. It takes faith to hold on to that in the face of the great burden of experience, which seems to prove otherwise. What God means by happiness and goodness is a far higher thing than we can conceive.
I was dethroning God by not fully accepting His will for Teresa's life. He has given us a tremendous gift in her . When you live with someone who is dieing you are forced to look at life differently . Things that used to be important simply aren't any more. Everything has meaning. I know Gods story has a happy ending for Teresa but that probably will not be here on earth , it will be in Heaven.
What a beautiful and inspiring post.
ReplyDeleteAn inspiring woman who years later is still inspiring others.
ReplyDeleteThank you for being real, Ann.
Hi Ann,
ReplyDeleteThat was a great post. Remember always, what we think is a great life is not always the same way as God sees it. Heaven is the only eternal peace there is. I am just so thankful to God that Teresa has celebrated her first birthday in the U.S. with you guys, her first Christmas and Easter, her first Thanksgiving and Halloween, 4th of July, and other U.S. holidays. She has had so many happy "firsts" with you guys. She is such an inspiration to many of us. I just love her spirit, and thank you for sharing it with us :):)
We pray daily and nightly for her miracle of curing to occur. Either she is cured and we on earth are happy, or she is not and Heaven rejoices. She will be the cause of rejoicing somewhere. She lightens up everyones' spirit.
God Bless you all,
Lee Ann
Morning Ann - I have all kinds of witty and clever things to say here - but probably better said this way...
ReplyDeleteThanks for "getting it".
We never know the 'why' behind our lives - and science is brilliant at explaining many things - but there comes a time for all people where they have to be able to leap beyond logic and understanding - where they have to create their own sense of purpose - where they go beyond the limits of their knowledge and understanding.
And that's where (or when) Faith - the unexplainable knowlege that there is something greater than us - happens.
There is a reason for all of this - and for my part - I've added it to the "list" - all those things that I intend to discuss with God one day...and I know to the center of my being that on that day He'll be happy to let me in on it. In the meantime - I'm good with that Belief!
hugs - aus and co.
Heaven is way more than we can ever imagine. And if He gives us such wonderful sunsets, oceans, rainbows, animals, people, etc. then just think of how much BETTER heaven will be. We have no idea! God is good ALL the time. I've been following this little girl's story for quite a while, she is in my heart and prayers as is her earthly family.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Lori
As you know, our Chrissie (also adopted) went to live with Jesus after 7 short months with our family. None of that made sense to us. Why would God ask us to adopt a girl if He only intended to share her joyful self with us for 7 short months? That definately wasn't our idea of a happy ending.
ReplyDeleteSo, when you wrote that God's "happy ending" to Teresa's story probably won't happen here on earth, it will be in heaven, I felt I should comment.
Our idea of happy endings is the fairy-tale ending where everyone lives "happily ever after". As you know, Teresa will live happily ever after...in heaven. Those of us who have put our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus Christ will also live happily ever after...in heaven.
It is the time that we're separated from our loved ones, when they're in heaven and we're not)that is so hard for those of us left behind, but through the glorious hope and promise of the blood of Christ, shed for you and me, we will get to spend all eternity with our saved loved ones.
I believe Teresa's (and Chrissie's) happy ending, in God's sovereignty, has already been fulfilled. They were granted a loving forever family on earth, and they will spend eternity with Jesus in Paradise. Although our desires are for our children to live long and fruitful lives upon this earth, when we compare earth to heaven, the earth we live on really stinks. It's a land of suffering, crime, hatred, and sin, until Jesus comes again to transform it to the New Earth. Chrissie was spared of sin and suffering on this earth, and she was warmly welcomed into Paradise where she will never know sin or suffer again. Now, we're just waiting for the day Jesus comes back to rescue us all and bring us into His promised land so we, too, can experience what Chrissie is experiencing and be united with Chrissie once again.
I know it's hard to imagine Teresa not being here on earth, but try to focus on the glory she'll be living for all eternity, without any sin, pain, suffering, hatred, etc. It's a hard thing to rejoice about when we think of being separated, but our time on this earth is but a blink of an eye when compared to eternity!