When God speaks.

This is a bold way of starting out the Bowling for Truth blog, but here it is...tonight I think God spoke to me.  I don't mean I heard a booming voice with a nice trumpet accompaniment, but the scripture I needed to hear appeared in my head without me asking for it.  Out of nowhere.  Here's what happened.

My family and I are going through the process of saying goodbye to a dear family member who is being taken away from us much too soon.  As I drove to his house at lunch today I spent the 30 minute drive going over what I needed to say to him before he was gone.  I bounced back and forth from crafting my final statements, to praying, to singing, to being on verge of outright weeping.  After sitting around for an hour at his house, he woke up and I got to speak to him right before I had to leave.  Instead of the many things I meant to say, I just held his hand, told him I loved him, and joked around with him, because that somehow seemed more appropriate.  It was a nice time and I left hoping I will see him again, but knowing I might not.

Tonight as my wife and kids were leaving an early Thanksgiving meal with friends I was thinking about the day and all the hurt the family is dealing with.  Then it appeared in my mind, as clear as if someone had read it out loud..."Let not your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God.  Trust also in me."...the words of Jesus from John 14:1.  Wow!  That hasn't happened to me in years!

Here's the best part...I heard a few years ago about the unique way Jesus would teach.  He would reference one verse in response to questions, but he would intend for the listener to understand that his REAL point was being made in the verse before or after.  As I drove along pondering this verse that had been given to me, my mind moved onto the following verses.

"My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back  and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." - John 14:2-3

The verse I was given comforted my heart, as it reminded me that I DO believe in God and also in Jesus and should have trust in them to do what is right, but the following verses tell me that our uncle is going to a place prepared by Jesus to be WITH Jesus!  Awesome!

I grieve for our aunt who will have to learn to live without her soul mate.  I grieve for those of us who love him and will miss him.  I grieve for the world, who is losing one of the finest men I have known.  But I am comforted that God sees more than I and his ways are good, even if we're too close to see them.  I am comforted that our uncle is headed to a place where he will no longer hurt and can be with those he has been missing.  I am comforted that I finally got some kind of an answer for the pleading prayers I sent up on his behalf.

What's coming next for our family will hurt so bad, but God is good.  I will believe in God and also in Jesus.  I will try to not let my heart be troubled, even though it's breaking.  I will praise him in this storm.

Praise be to God, creator of the Heavens & Earth, who gives and takes away.