The BEAUTY in opposites

We received notice this week that a ONE MONTH old in our church has cancer. Those are the days I shake my head and wonder WHY???? I pray for the family that HAS TO be experiencing shock and devastation. As we set up teams to visit I pray for a miracle but I am also reminded of something I wrote awhile ago. Thought I would share...

The colors of purple, red, and yellow engulf you. Playful children’s artwork covers the walls. Silver balloons and toys are a regular sight you see. The sounds of children’s voices fill the air. There are waterfalls, trains, and even an indoor playground to entertain each child who wanders in. Where am I?

You might guess an amusement park or a child’s birthday party.

But, let me share with you the other sights and sounds going on around me.

Pacing parents in the hallway, the subtle weeping of a mother as she listens to the doctor give her “the news”, a heartbreaking cry of pain from a child’s lungs, child after child sitting in room after room with various tubes coming from their arms and chest, the sad eyes of parents and children meet your own and you know they are wondering “what is about to happen next?”

Where am I?

Where do these two worlds of sadness and joy meet?
Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

I wait with one of our families to hear the news that will either bring a smile to our face or tears to our eyes.

As I focus in on what is happening all around me I realize how much the world we live in today is like this moment of time I am experiencing.  

We live in a world filled with opposites.

death and birth.

divorce and marriage.

illness and cure.

bankruptcy and millionaires.

war and peace.

I ask the mom I am waiting with how she does it? How does she cope?

What she tells me isn’t unique or something she made up. She tells me that what gets her through each day is “TRUST!”

Trust! Trusting that God is in-charge and knows exactly what is going on. Trusting that, even through we don’t understand, God is bigger and more creative than we could ever be. Trusting that this place we call earth is just our small playground for the excitement that is to come in the big amusement park called heaven. Trust is the key!

Solomon shared some simple yet wise words of wisdom with us in Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5 that can provide us with the power of God at all times.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

This would be a great verse to memorize. For some fun memorization tricks of the trade check out this post from Ginger Ciminello.