Back in the Father's Arms

Several years ago, when my middle child was two years old, she fell and cut her eyelid on the bottom of a glider rocker. We immediately took her to the emergency room where they put 6 stitches in her eyelid. Because of her being so little, the nurse took her arms placed them by her sides and wrapped her whole body in a sheet where she could not move. My husband and I had to stand there and listen to her scream for us over and over again. We could see her face pleading with us to pick her up, to release her from this horrible situation. It was very hard to stand there and watch this when everything in me wanted to run to her and hold her. This story comes to mind as a picture of how God is with us. When we are going through difficult times, he sees us, he hears us. He is standing there saying, "just a little while longer, child, you can do it." He wants to run to us and lift the burden, but he also sees the big picture. He knows these "stitches" are needed in our lives to help us grow into the person he has purposed for us to be. He will not let us stay there a minute more than we have to. When it is over, he will run to us. He will pick us up and hold us, whispering in our ear, "it is over, child." There is no greater picture of this than when Jesus was dying on the cross and God watched his only, pure and righteous son, take on all of our sin and die for us. God the Father watched waiting for the moment when Jesus, the son, arrived in heaven so he could run to him.
Please know today that God is there. He is watching. He loves you. He is preparing a future for you beyond your wildest dreams. Trust Him. This difficult time in your life God will use for your good if you let him.

I Peter 1:6-7- "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Deuteronomy 8:2- "And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.