A Baby Needing a Heart Transplant
By Jeanne Gowen Dennis
Our church is praying for a four-month-old baby who needs a heart transplant. As I prayed for that little one and her parents, I couldn’t help but cry inside.
No matter what the outcome, one family will have to experience a painful loss. If the child doesn’t receive a transplant she could die, and if she does, then another child will have died.
We might wonder why God would allow such pain, why little ones have to suffer at all. Yet as believers, we know His wisdom extends far beyond anything we could imagine.
He promises in His Word, the Bible, that all things—not some, but all—work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).
If we have been Christians long, we realize (and have probably experienced) that God uses pain to help us grow. The Bible tells us He uses everything we go through to make us more like Jesus (Rom. 8:29).
Believers who experience intense emotional or even great physical pain will reach the point where we can genuinely thank God for it—if we lean on Him instead of blaming Him.
Who are we to question the Almighty anyway? His ways are not our ways. We are mortal. He is immortal. He knows and understands all—past, present, and future.
Our understanding equals next to nothing in comparison. Yet in His incredible love, He uses our pain to draw us closer to His heart.
The world we live in has been tainted because of sin. There will always be troubles in life, some much worse than others.
The only solution still remains to go to the cross. There we find the One who suffered unfathomable pain as He gave His all for us. As we draw near to Him, He draws us closer to Himself.
And just as it did for the disciples on that Resurrection morning, our joy will return—even in the midst of pain.
Then no one will be able to take away our joy (John 16:22), because it will be founded not in our circumstances, but in Him.
© Jeanne Gowen Dennis
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