We had a great time with the kids. Clarissa loved looking at all the different animals she doesn't see on a regular basis and both her and Silas had a wonderful time with Anne's boys. (If you look just to the left of Clarissa there's a bear peaking out from the water).
Before heading to the zoo with Anne, I heard that one of our organist Sharon Vander Zouwen had died. Sharon was a wonderful organist and used her amazing ability of tickling the ivory to worship Jesus Christ. You could tell simply by the way she played that she enjoyed being in front of the organ. She was in her '70s and as some say, "she died too soon."
Sunday morning we had Silas baptized and celebrated Clarissa's second birthday.
We had a great time celebrating the covenant that God has already made with Silas as well as the joy he has given us with Clarissa.
Lastly I found out later in the day Sunday, that a couple in our church that was in their 7th month of being pregnant had lost their child.
So as you can see it was a very fun weekend, it had it's ups and it had it's downs, but the reason I write you these things is for a reason. It says in Isaiah 55:8, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD."
Lately I feel like a lot of people that I either know or have a connection with in some way have gone through death, disease and darkness. Sometimes I think to myself selfishly, "when am I next?" I feel like the world is crashing down on others and it's only a matter of time before it will be me. I also think, "why isn't it happening to me?" Why do others have to go through the stuff they are going through and here I am a man just as deserving of the things of these other people (if not more) and I have not experienced much of it...yet.
When I was at the zoo the other day it made me think about the animals living in the cages. (Now don't worry I'm not gonna go all anti-hunter on you). I'm gonna guess for the majority of the animals living at zoos all over the world, that when they were born, they didn't think their life was gonna come down to them sitting in a cage and thousands of snotty nosed kids and their frantic parents watching them. They probably thought they would live in their natural habitat enjoying the open areas of their native lands. Their life wasn't what they thought it was gonna be.
For Sharon the organist, I'm sure she was not planning on breathing her last breath this weekend. I'm sure she did not write down on her pocket calendar that this was gonna be the date that she was gonna meet Jesus. From the little I know of Sharon, I know that she was aware of her eternal home, but I'm guessing her plans were not to die when she did.
Moving on to the couple that lost their baby. What a devastating thing to go through. After preparing for months for the arrival of this new child, putting her room together, telling the other kids of the upcoming sibling and praying for the development of this child, how do you respond to the news of no heartbeat? It wasn't a part of the plan!
Even things like the baptism and the birthday party this weekend may not be what we had planned for. Looking at Silas during the baptism it brought back flashbacks of something we weren't sure was going to be able to happen after Susan had an ectopic pregnancy earlier. The same with celebrating with Clarissa, after the struggles of trying to get pregnant with her. On top of that knowing of so many people that are struggling to have kids right now.
We all have plans. We all have ideas of what we want to accomplish with our lives. We plan for what kind of house we're going to live in, what our family is going to look like, where we're going to spend our vacations. We may even have set plans/goals when we hit certain ages (a bucket list if you will).
When things don't go how we dreamed they would go. When our plans don't come to fruition like we thought they would, and if we don't recognize who is in control we can go crazy trying to figure out why things are happening the way they are.
God has a plan for our lives. He has known it from the beginning of time. He knew that we needed a Savior to mend the wound that sin caused way back in Genesis. God knows what our plans are (as it says in Isaiah 55), but His plans are greater! We may not agree with them, we may scream to him "It's not fair!" and chances are it's not, but God has it under control.
Jesus did not come just to make us feel better about ourselves. Jesus came to give us hope. To show us even though we will suffer, even though we will go through pain, in the end the pain and suffering will not prevail. Jesus died and rose again so that one day, (like Sharon) we will live eternally with Him.
I know I've written similar blogs on things like this in the past, but this has once again been pressed on my heart. I hate seeing people suffer, I'm not a big fan of people going through tough times, but this blog helps me remember (and maybe it will for you too) that death is swallowed up in victory.
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