Life as a Vapor

Life feels really fragile today. I talked to my precious sister this morning and she was telling me about some of the heartache going on in the lives of people in her church. One dear, godly woman, who also was my favorite elementary teacher, has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer. She has 3 teenagers and a wonderful husband who battled cancer himself a few years ago. Their hope is in the Lord but I can only imagine how their hearts must be aching.

Another family just found out that the little 2 year old girl they were in the process of adopting from Haiti died. Having adopted ourselves, those children, though thousands of miles away become very much apart of your family and your heart. When we thought we had "lost" the boys, our hearts grieved as though I had miscarried...so, I find my eyes welling up with tears at just the thought of the way this family must be hurting. This is not the first daughter that has gone before them to Heaven. They lost their 6 year old daughter a couple of years ago, too.

A family from our church back East knows what it means to lose two daughters, too. A few years ago, their little baby McKenna Joy was diagnosed with a deadly illness when she was 3 months old and she died before her first birthday. Last year, God saw fit to bless Kelly with another pregnancy...another baby girl. She has the same illness as her older sister and her days have been numbered much sooner than any of us would have ever planned.

My emotions are getting the best of me making it hard to write this post. My heart grieves for these precious families and the loss that they have and are experiencing. But I am praising the Lord, too, that they all know and love Jesus with their whole hearts. They know the character of God and, because they know who He is, though they may not understand why the things that are happening are happening...they trust His sovereignty and the fact that God only does what is best for us. What hope and what testimonies they have been as they cling to Rock of Salvation...as they are living examples of the words of Charles Spurgeon: "I have learned to kiss the wave that strikes me against the Rock of Ages".

And, as I said in the very beginning of my post, it reminds me of how fragile life is...truly a vapor as James says. Bryan and I have been reading John Piper's "Life As A Vapor" in the morning and I can't help but recall a few things he has said that have me pondering and reflecting on life and how I am living it. I'll close with a few of his thoughts:

"Since every moment is the beginning of the rest of your life, and every moment is the end of the past, every moment should be governed by the glad affections of both gratitude (toward the past) and faith (toward the future)."

"Whatever pleasures or pains may come our way in this day, they will all be mercy...we never rise above the status of beneficiaries of mercy. We are always utterly dependent on the undeserved. God never owes us anything in ourselves. The smallest faith and the fullest obedience receive one thing:almighty mercy."