Jesus in Unexpected Places

For those of you that have been checking my blog recently, I apologize for my absence.

I've been learning some hard lessons in recent days, due to illness. To my surprise, one of my teachers has been my two-year-old son, Noah.

Two weeks ago I suffered from a migraine for which I was unable to take any medication. I spent about twelve hours in the worst pain of my life, sick to my stomach and unable to sleep. I cried out to God in those desperate moments, asking Him to deliver me or give me the strength to get through. He chose the latter.

At the worst point, as I sat on the bathroom floor, Noah suddenly appeared in the doorway. He looked at me for a moment and then spoke.

"Okay, Mommy? Okay?"

"Mommy's sick." I answered. He disappeared. I assumed he had returned to his play, but several minutes later I heard him lumbering down the stairs and running back to the bathroom door. He held out a sucker that he had retrieved from my room. I had a bag of them I'd been using for nausea.

Later he returned again with my bottle of water.

It was a simple thing, but for some reason his acts of kindness stuck in my mind. How amazing is God that He can reveal His love through a little boy barely able to communicate? How timely are His reminders that He is there, He is in control and that He will pull us through anything He allows in our lives, no matter how impossible it may seem. And not only will we make it through, we will become better for the experience. As Romans says, our suffering creates in us perseverance, character, and hope.

So if you are like me, and you've been at the bottom in some way recently, whether emotionally, physically or otherwise, don't despair. Allow God to shape you in the midst of the fire. You'll be glad in the end.

And may God bring your Noah to you to remind you of His everlasting love.