Our Daily Bread [Readers' Calendar 2017-2018]

Powerful Baby ( Tim Gustafson)

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?. . . But I trust in your unfailing love.
              —Psalms 13:1,5

Read: Psalms 13

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 30-31;
Philemon

The first time I saw him,  I cried. He looked like a perfect new born asleep in his crib.

But we knew he would never wake up. Not until he was in the arms of Jesus.

He clung to life for several months. Then his mother told us of his death in a heart-wrenching mail. She wrote of "that deep, deep pain that groans inside you." Then she said, "How deeply God carved His work of love into our hearts through that little life! What a powerful life it was!"

Powerful? How could she say that?

This family's precious little boy showed them–and–us that we must depend God for everything. Especially when things go horribly wrong! The hard yet comforting truth is that God meets us in our pain. He knows a grief of losing the son.

In our deepest pain, we turn to the songs of David because he writes out of his own grief. "How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?" he asked (Ps. 13:2). "Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death" (v. 3). Yet David could give his biggest question to God. "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation" (v. 5).

Only God can bring ultimate significance to our most tragic events.

Where do I turn when a crisis hits me? Do I ever get angry with God  when facing grief and loss? Am I afraid to share my true emotions with Him? Have I ever asked God for His peace?

God can do the most with what we think is least.