He is in the Fire

It seems like grief is bubbling up on every side these days.

There is sorrow in this world.

There is loss.

Where is God in sadness?

A few months ago our really good friends found out that their unborn baby girl has spina bifida. Immediately this precious mama felt the stirring of the Holy Spirit and asked for people to come and pray for the healing and health of her little one.

As we walked through the front door into the full living room I was struck with the strangeness of this group of people. In ordinary circumstances we probably wouldn't all be in the same room. We were all so different, drawn together by the one thing that makes us family - Jesus.

Everyone knelt down; no one sat on a chair or stayed standing. With an unspoken brokenness and urgency every single person, young and old, sank to the ground.

And then we wept. We all cried.

And we prayed.

Looking around at the tear streaked faces of the people around me I was so struck with the holiness of the moment. The Message Bible says that "a basic holiness permeates everything."

Holiness saturates our air; thick and sweet.

Not long after that prayer meeting my girlfriend wrote to me about a woman she knows who was lying unresponsive in the ICU due to toxic shock syndrome. Her 3 little ones (one of her kids is 11 weeks old) are waiting for her to be healed and come home.

And then another friend posted a link with a video made by the parents of a beautiful 5 year old girl, asking for prayer. Their daughter, Kate, has a brain tumor.

A few days ago we found out that my vibrant, life-loving aunt has cancer.

Grief.

Loss.

Sorrow.

The mama of the unborn baby posted a prayer on Facebook. She wrote:

"This has all been a blur, but the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord stands out clear in my head. Separated from the mess and distinguished above all of the pain and fear is He. He sits alone, and from His holy hill he listens. My mind is full of the Lord, my thoughts captive to Him. He has told me to be persistent. He has told me to hope. He has told me to wait, and be still. He has told me that His power is over this child, and that I will behold it. I prayed that He would not let me be ashamed. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown in the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar looked in and said, "Look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like the Son of man." This is my prayer... that when they look at the ultrasound in about 3 weeks that they would call out, "Look, who is with her? It looks like the Son of Man." That she would be unharmed and unbound, that the things they thought would hold her would be gone, that they would burn away that they would be healed in the POWER of His presence. That the hearts of the doctors and nurses and the hearts of those sitting and watching would be turned to Him. That they would know who reigns. I want them to proclaim as Nebucadnezzar proclaimed, "How great are His signs, How mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation." Our God is good and we wait in anticipation."

So, this has also become my prayer.

I pray that my aunt, my family, the children of the mama in icu, the mama herself and her husband, sweet kate and her parents and siblings, our friends and their unborn daughter, their 3 year old daughter, and their entire family all would see Jesus in the fire with them.

I pray that we would ALL see God in our sadness; that we would encounter him untying our hands and feet.

Freedom.

Miracles.

Life.