After the loss of a loved one, doing mundane things, like the wash, seems to be so robotic. Hanging clean laundry in my closet, I turned to leave when my 6-year-old grandson (who had followed me) asked what all those notes were on the wall of my closet. I gasped as soon as I noticed! They were answers to prayers we had prayed since the beginning of 2022. Several were answers for my nephew, Dylan. I choked back tears as I replied.

January – God answered our prayers for Dylan’s healing from COVID. February – More answered prayer for a kidney stone to pass. March 8 – Answered prayer for his Stem Cell Transplant. March 28 – God answered our pleas for him to walk out of that hospital! April – Dylan again returned to the hospital, again with COVID, but recovered. May – More Kidney stones and a return trip to the hospital for assistance in ridding him of those torturous stones but recover he did. June – We were given the news his cancer was back, but God answered our prayers through the treatments giving us a good report. July – fungal infection that his body could not seem to shake and sepsis shock. This time was different. God did answer our prayers for healing. However, God answered our prayers for healing by taking him to his eternal home. Through those difficult last weeks, we were thankful to hear his aunt, my younger sister, who had stayed with him at various times, report her discussion with him of where he would spend eternity if he did not recover. What great assurance to know He would be with the Lord when the day came for him to depart from this life!

Back in September of 2020, I received a call from my panicked sister-in-law. Her son had been in a terrible wreck. We did not know if he was okay, but my brother was on his way there as we spoke. My brother told her to call me and stay on the line since she was alone. I felt panicked myself and after praying all I could do is assure her of God’s love for Dylan. “You know God loves Dylan,” I said through my tears fearful of what my brother would find. Her response was, “I know!” Our prayer’s desire was answered. He was okay. As the picture of his truck circulated, we realized God placed a hedge of protection round about him for the ability to walk away from that accident without death or even significant injury.

Sharon (my sister-in-law) responded with a deep sense that he must have escaped harm for a reason and hoped he would listen to what God had for him.

In our minds, Sharon’s homegoing (cancer) in 2021 spared her from all that Dylan would encounter with a Leukemia diagnosis. Words cannot describe the pain of watching him lose his momma and then just over 7 months later begin his own similar journey. Great losses indeed! This life is hard and painful! Where can we go for understanding?

Gleaning from the book, Our God, The Attributes of God, Octavius Winslow says: “the love of God [is] the concentric truth…”

“God is love.”

John 4:16

Winslow writes: “Had not God’s love resolved to save man, all His other perfections must have been employed and displayed in destroying man. Love set its heart upon man, yearned to save man, and resolved to embark in the expedient of his salvation; and this it did by conceiving a plan which should harmonize all the other attributes of His nature, and engage them in the divine and wondrous work of redeeming mercy.”

Job (in the Old Testament) lost a great deal in this life. But he found something far more important. A better understanding of the God of love that would give His greatest possession to win back a sinful people deserving of eternal damnation. Through Job’s pain he found a deeper awareness than he previously grasped.

“I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.”

42:3b

As Job witnessed the Almighty and what He can do, his response was one of respect and awe:

“I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees Thee; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”

42:5-6 NASB

When we arrive in heaven, our thoughts will not be on all we endured while on this earth but sorrow that we did not accomplish more for the God of Love who gave everything to have a relationship with us, His children. 2 Corinthians 4:17

No matter what hurt we encounter in this life – Do not run from God! Dive into His Word! Find what Job found: God Almighty! His love can fill the empty places of your heart!

Please continue to pray for Dylan’s family. He would have celebrated his 24^th birthday, Wednesday, July 20, 2022!

Praise the Lord he is celebrating someone much more glorious!