4/15/13 – Another day to Never Forget…

Yesterday was my birthday.  I have trouble with my birthday each year due to sadness that fills the month of April in our home and the memories of things in my past that haunt me on a regular basis, thought not as much as they could if Christ wasn’t ministering to my heart on a continual basis.

Yesterday my family wanted to make the day special and all I wanted was to stay home and spend time alone in the quietness of them.  Not far into my day as I searched the web I was shocked and saddened to see the events unfolding at the Boston Marathon.  Sadness, anger and fear rose inside of me as I sat thinking about how I watched 9/11 unfold in the exact same way, watching live as the second plane flew into the tower, watching them fall and watching thousands die.  With disbelief I watched yesterday and thought “maybe it isn’t so.”  But it was.  Lives were ended, ripped apart and torn into pieces and not one person could change the fact that the horrid actions of a few changed the lives of so many forever.

I don’t know anyone that was hurt, but it affected me none-the-less.  When those that are loved by God (all of the human race) are hurt He cries, and so do I.  It isn’t His will for anyone to be hurt the way they were and are being hurt still today.  But He is with us giving us strength even when we don’t feel Him.  I have faced some terrible things and I didn’t always feel Him when I was going through those things, but I surely saw His hand when the time was right.  Seeing what He saved me from truly gives me a perspective of How incredibly loving and HOLY He is.  I don’t deserve to be saved, forgiven and I don’t deserve to receive any blessings at all… but He provides all those things anyway… freely.

I have been playing the song “Lamb of God” by Tenth Avenue North over and over again and what strikes me is that no matter what tragedy falls us, no matter who wills to destroy us He is still Holy, Worthy and Able and I will trust in Him for all my needs especially when I understand nothing… nothing at all.

This verse stands out to me more than any other…

“How do I dare approach this Holy One
The One who was and is, was and is to come
Robed in righteousness and mystery
We have only just begun, just begun to see
So I come broken through
The blood of Your Son and I kneel before You”

I pray for every single person hurt by this tragedy, that the Lord not only heals wounds of the body and of the heart but also of the spirit.  I pray the blood of Jesus over each person and pray that they would know His healing touch and His deep and forever free gift of salvation.  I pray that they would see that He is a God who is mightier than any foe out there and that all He wants to do is to be the one to fight for us.  All we need to do is ask and believe He will do it.  Even if it happens in a way we are not expecting.  God bless each of you in Boston and elsewhere affected by this tragedy.