Friday, May 25, 2018

We walk by faith, not by sight

Oh, LORD, I miss her.  I still struggle with “why” she didn’t share with me. We had always spoken about every aspect of life—- every joy and every agony——nothing was ever held back between us.

She was so very dear to me, so precious, a gift from God.  As she slipped away I longed for her to talk with me about it.  The sadness to leave, but the joy to go and see Jesus! —-no longer experience pain, no sadnesses, but only gain because of Him!

Faithful to me to the end she loved me, she rallied to be “up” and act like she was “fine".  She obviously wanted to protect me from grief before its time—-and so I allowed this for her.  At first I tried to bring her situation up in conversations so we could talk about it. I wanted to share with her how much I loved her, how much I would miss her, how we would meet again, and what joy it would be! But she wanted to love me and protect me in her own way---so I let her do so.

This precious woman loved me as a treasured daughter.  My “other mother” she would say, a true friend and a dear sister in Jesus.

Oh, LORD, I miss her. Praising You for weaving her into my life!

All my hope is in You, my precious Savior!

Philippians 1:21-26
"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 
But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; 
and I do not know which to choose. 
But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart 
and be with Christ, for that is very much better; 
yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. 
Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all 
for your progress and joy in the faith, 
so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus 
through my coming to you again."

2 Corinthians 5:1-10
"For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, 
we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens. 
For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our 
dwelling from heaven, 
inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 
For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because 
we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal 
will be swallowed up by life.
Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us 
the Spirit as a pledge.

Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are 
at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 
for we walk by faith, not by sight—
we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the 
body and to be at home with the Lord. 
Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, 
to be pleasing to Him. 
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each 
one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he 
has done, whether good or bad.



2 comments:

Jesse Albrecht said...

Moving post. We truly should be grateful for the ones whom we consider beloved, and thank the Lord for the unfathomable blessings and tender mercies He gives.

The Piper's Wife said...

Thank you, Jesse, for your kind words. Yes, oh, yes, the LORD is full of tender mercies! Thank you for the reminder today! Much needed!