Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Every year when the trees are losing their leaves and the air becomes cooler my heart is reminded of a time of personal crisis thirty-one years ago. It seemed Becky and I had experienced the loss of so many things during those days. We hit bottom on the evening of November 14, 1981 when we lost our baby girl, Hannah Joy.
Our faith in the promises and goodness of God was tested to the breaking point, but it turned out to be the greatest turning point of our lives. There will be times in our lives of great loss. That is an inescapable fact of living in a fallen world, yet God will make those times become something beautiful (Eccl. 3:11) if we will allow Him.
I see this in the lives of many of the heroes of faith and it is especially laid out for us in David’s life. Before he became king, he went through a time of personal loss and tragedy. In 1 Samuel 25:1 we are told, “Samuel died.” The man who anointed him as king and was his personal mentor and friend was gone. In 1 Samuel 25:44, King Saul in a jealous rage took David’s young wife, Michal and gave her to another man.
In 1 Samuel 30, David and his men lost their wives, children and livestock in a raid by Amalekites on the city of Ziklag. It tells us, “David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep” (1 Sam. 30:4). And to make matters worse, “David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord His God” (1 Sam. 30:6).
Then David inquired of the Lord, who assured him of victory against the raiders. David and his men recovered everyone and everything (1 Sam. 20:18-19). This was the beginning of a turning point for David. In this place of apparent total loss David began to build his army, an army that was likened to the army of God (1 Chron. 12:22).
Finally, in 1 Samuel 31, David lost his best friend, Jonathan, who was killed along with his father, King Saul, in a battle on Mt. Gilboa. One more time he was crushed, but it wasn’t long after that David was crowned king at Hebron (2 Sam. 2:4).
David wrote something about the faithfulness and goodness of the Lord when we go through these terrible times.
He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me. Psalm 18:19
At the end of every season of loss, distress and mourning God desires to bring us out into a broad place and deliver us because He delights in us. God did this for Becky and I thirty-one years ago and many times since. Hannah Joy can never be replaced, but we we came to know Him like we never knew Him before. Our lives have never been the same since. Everything beautiful really does begin with God.
By the grace of God we all can emerge from this season of loss we have walked through knowing Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering (Phil. 3:8,10).
Many Blessings, BW