Kevin & Stephanie (my brother & sister-in-law) left for Columbia last week Friday and this afternoon the moment they have been waiting for so long for finally came . . . they finally got to meet their precious little girl. Tonight is the first night this 'family of four' will be spending together. The first of many to come.
Lori & Eric (my sister & brother-in-law) are simply living one day at a time. Eric is in the very advanced stages of ALS. Every morning when they wake up they say "another day together". His pain and suffering will be gone when he gets to meet Jesus face to face - just thinking about that gives me goosebumps. I can see him running and jumping and dancing and singing on the top of his lungs! There will be tears of joy celebrating his new life but also many tears of sadness as we wait for the day when we will all be reunited again.
Some days when I think about all that our family is going through I am overwhelmed. If I would read this update about a family other than ours I would say there was no possible way our family would survive something like that. I have days where I wish I could just close my eyes and make it all go away ~ that we could go back to a "normal" life. But since that can't happen we have to make the best of what we have.
As I started to become overwhelmed this afternoon the song 'Blessed Be Your Name' was running through my head.
Blessed be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name.
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name.
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name.
Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Blessed be Your name.
Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Blessed be Your glorious name.
These are just some of the verses and the chorus of the song. These are the verses that sum up our family perfectly. Right now His streams of abundance are flowing for my brother and his family. My sister and her family are on the road marked with suffering. Sometimes our streams of abundance include suffering and other times the roads marked with suffering have been filled with abundance Every blessing our family receives we turn back to praise and even in the darkness we will bless the name of the Lord.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:3-9
