Part of a Bigger Story

I was asked to lead creative writing at camp last week. The theme of each session was that we are part of a bigger story. The last assignment came from my reading about Hezekiah. "Hezekiah trusted in the LORD God of Israel; not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him." (2 Kings 18:5) Yet, when he was thirty nine years old he became terminally ill and the prophet Isaiah came to him with this message from God, "This is what the LORD says: 'Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.'" (2 Kings 20:1) The question I asked was, "How would you respond if this was a message you heard from God?"

When I picked up my pencil to write the memory flooded back into my mind;

Whenever I went to visit my little sister I would smile at her three sons who were four and under. They had the ability to make the room seem more like a three ring circus than a living room. Ah, but then Steve, their daddy, would come home. He would change from his suite into clothes suitable for a romp on the floor with his boys.

"Ya'll go out and enjoy the evening they're mine for the night." A backward glance was all I needed. The Daddy was covered with his children and his face was covered with a smile.

He was a picture of health, so much so that he had been asked to be a model. He was keenly intelligent and at the age of thirty three he was already a partner in a CPA firm. He was thirty three. He was only thirty three. It was a fast growing cancer. I had seen him that Spring laughing, a boy riding on each of his legs and one in his arms, but in August two weeks before his wife, my sister, turned thirty he was dead.

I was with Trisha when she came home. I watched as she walked to the refrigerator and took the postcard someone had sent her. The postcard read, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11) I held my breath and wondered how she would respond. She paused and the said, "The plan God had for Steve was Heaven but I believe that the plans He has for me are for wholeness and not evil, to give me a future and a hope."

Lord, there are somethings that happen that I just don't understand and I believe can only make since with an eternal perspective. Please help me to follow my little sister's example and trust in Your promise even if my heart is broken.