WEEK 5 – DAY 4

JUST DUST

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. Psalm 103:13-14

Read all of Psalm 103 aloud.  Drink in its truth.  I had watched a video on which Michael Card did just that only a few days before I got the call about Juanza.  The school secretary took the call and came to my classroom to give me the news that my friend Juanza had suffered complications after childbirth and wasn’t expected to live.  I hadn’t even known she was pregnant!  It seemed only yesterday that I’d attended her wedding, but it had been long enough for her to be having her first child. That night at the hospital Juanza’s mother sobbed that she couldn’t understand why Juanza was dying when she finally had all her heart had desired: a loving husband, two step-sons, and a beautiful new daughter.  She felt guilty for questioning God.  I shared Psalm 103:14 with her and assured her that God understood her inability to understand His ways. On the way home I had to remind myself that God in His wisdom had a plan for Juanza’s family and that this earthly tragedy had not caught heaven off guard.  ALL the words of Psalm 103 were still true for them and for me even if we were having a hard time trusting at that moment.  Juanza, a respiratory therapist, had once told me that the saddest thing was to see a family keeping a body alive when the person was probably already absent from that body and present with the Lord.  During the drive from the hospital I prayed that the Lord would take Juanza home quickly so that her husband would not be faced with the decision to remove life support.  He was not up to that.  When I arrived home, my phone was ringing.  Juanza was with Jesus.  I wrote Juanza’s song based on Psalm 103:14. Read Psalm 103. Internalize it.  When sorrow beyond belief encroaches on your life, allow God to bring it to mind in order to help you to remember that He understands your questions and doubts.

Father, thank You for understanding that we are just dust. Help us to accept and embrace by faith the difficult days, knowing You are using them to mold us into the image of Your Son (Romans 8:28-29).