Life happens. We have all heard that phrase and have probably said it. I don’t believe in coincidences. Most things happen for a reason, like the people we meet, and others occur because we live in a fallen world where Satan has power, for now.
It is hard to understand why difficult or even horrible things transpire in our lives and why we lose those we love dearly. It takes time, the help of the Holy Spirit, and the love of others to get us through the challenges this life throws at us.
Through it all, we have a Father and Savior who stick by our side. Yeshua came to be Hope in our darkest most difficult times.
I have suffered the loss of loved ones like most of you. My father died 25 years ago. It was difficult, even though at that time, I knew it would happen soon. It took years before I could talk about him without tears.
I suffered a miscarriage of our first child too. We had tried for 3 years to get pregnant. Even though I knew it was a baby, it was easier to think of it as a bunch of cells, at first. Once I allowed reality to set in the pain was unbearable.
I was angry at God. I found it impossible to pray. Grief overwhelmed me.
But…
My God was with me. He allowed me to grieve.
Then He started to heal my pain.
He gave me HOPE. He reminded me that I did get pregnant. I was able to have a child. There would be other children.
A loss does not have to just be the death of someone we love but can take on many forms. It can be the end of a friendship, a dream, or the end of a marriage. Maybe you have lost your job or home.
The pain in our hearts can be excruciating, and you may feel like you will never recover. Still, there is hope!
Our family recently lost our beautiful, sweet, German shepherd. She was 7 years-old. We have had to put a couple of dogs down at the ripe old ages of 12 and 13. I still grieved their loss, but this time it was different. Olivia died when she fell through the ice on our pond and drowned. It was awful! We found her after getting home from a funeral of a family member. She was our family too.
Some may say she was just a dog, but she was my friend. While my children are moving out and going to college, that dog was like the child that never grew up.
The Lord was again with me in my grief.
He understands love.
He understands loss.
He never made light of my grief or my love for this dog. He was simply there. After a couple of weeks, I felt the Holy Spirit say, “If you really believe that everything you have is mine then she was mine too.”
I am not sure why that gave me comfort, but it did.
I do believe that everything I have belongs to God. I know I can trust Him with everything I love, including my husband, children, family, friends, pets, and home. He is in control.
I know I will see my dad, my baby and others I have lost again in Heaven. I have hope Olivia will be there too. If not, I’m glad I had her here.
What a great redeeming God, we serve
Hi Stephanie. i think you are wrong when you say you don’t believe in coincidence. The idea that everything happens for a reason is so hard to grasp logically, and most people run to it to comfort themselves with the annoying and disappointing events that have turned out in their lives.
Most people believe there is a reason for their suffering, and thus they hold to that hope, which keeps them going with the mindset that everything is planned under a grand cosmic plan, that it can justify itself.
The harsh truth is that not everything happens for a reason. Well, technically, there is a reason, because we chose a decision that pushed and propelled the events to result to one big effect. God watches over us, but He does not entirely input choices in our heads that the reason of Him doing that, manifests itself. God gave us the power of the will to choose. And there are only two major choices in this world; yes and no. Every aspect of our lives are linked with those type of choices- yes or no. You either want or you don’t want.
We are interconnected with other human beings in the idea that every choice we make is really added on to another, and therefore, the pile up together and react vigorously to form tiny or vast effect that spread across our lives.
Coincidence comes in this way; anonymous decisions chosen by people themselves interlink along the paths at the same time. We tend to have made the same choice that leads us to someones else. Now that’s what coincidence means. Its an intention which leads us to cross paths with an intention of another person.
Reason isn’t entirely what it sounds like. Reason is mostly an excuse of people who don’t want to make things right, or stand up to what they believe in. Everything happens for a reason, and that reason is because we chose it in one way or another.
Well that’s i perceive things.
Hi Roy, I do agree with your logic. I know when I miscarried it was because the hospital where I worked at the time required me to have a measles booster without checking if I was pregnant or asking if I was trying. It happened because someone didn’t follow protocol. But, at the same time, I didn’t know I was pregnanat and it never occured to tell them I was. However, I believe God can stop things from happening in our lives if He chooses to. If not, like Job, He uses it for His glory. Bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people, and sometimes things just happen. I understand that. However, I don’t believe God allows pain and suffering without reason for the most part. We may never know in this life what purpose it served, but someday we will.
Yes, i believe God sometimes lets us go through some rough patch,, all for a wondrous goal that it will the best for us. And i also believe God is the Almighty who can give meaning to what we find useless and pointless.
Lovely words about an awesome topic. Where would we be without Hope? Hope keeps us moving forward , and it’s a gift we have as Christians. That one day, we will understand everything. Until then , I have Hope! Thanks for those encouraging words and that reminder!
Stephanie, such a comforting post. I could identify because of your candid, simple and yet profound post. Something about losing your dog really got to me. I know you’d just gone to a funeral (human I’m sure), but I agree—our pets are indeed family too.
Indeed, hope tells us everything we have belongs to our Father God. And He is a good Father!
Thank you, sister, for sharing your heart. It is tough, but effective, to harness pain in order to help someone heal and to trust God through the hard times. You have done that with grace and efficiency and I thank you.