Sacredly Scarred

A friend shared an interview with me today that highlighted a mother of 4, her twin boys stillborn.  Little was shared concerning the reason for their death but this mother was surprisingly blessed when she informed her 5 year old daughter that her baby brothers would not be coming home.  She describes seeing her daughter waiting on the front porch as she pulled up to her home.  She prayed to God that He would provide the words to tell the excited big sister of the sad news.  The little girl questioned her momma, “Where are my babies?  Where are my brothers?”  When the momma finally spoke, she said, “God makes some babies to go straight to heaven.”  The little girl clasped her hands together and brought them tightly into her chest and proclaimed, “Oh Momma, He picked you!”

Each time I replay the image of this little one awaiting her prize, and the wisdom she bestows on the broken heart of her momma, I weep.  I weep for all of us who have held death in our arms and begged God for a miracle.  I weep for all of us who have never gotten the opportunity to hold the life that began to grow within us but never received the blessing of seeing a precious face. I weep for all those women who desperately long for a child and have not yet received that honor.  I weep tears of offering to God that speak only to Him and proclaim my humble affection and adoration of the one and only God that finds us worthy of being picked.

“He picked you!”  In our home we have used the phrase, He “selected” us for this suffering.  I like the idea that He “picked” us for this suffering.  As if we were an apple on a tree and of all the apple trees across all the orchards across all the lands that produce that delightful fruit, you were pruned and ready for the pickin’. You were not picked because you were bruised or diseased.  You were picked because you have been tenderly cared for and nourished by the Spirit of God who has fully equipped you to provide the sweetness that can still be enjoyed from a fruit filled heart.

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

1 Peter 1:6-7

As I think about this tremendous gift the Lord lavished on this mom through the insight of her own child, it is a huge concept for most people to even wrap their minds around, that God picks us, chooses us, selects us to be one of His.  It’s an even grander concept to rest so assuredly in the sovereignty of God that when suffering is presented that we can truly rejoice because we were “picked, chosen, selected.”  We are deemed capable enough by the perfect God, who knows our greatest weaknesses, yet places us in a position to demonstrate His perfect power within us.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

I would like to share so much more but my tears prevent me from doing so at this moment.

If you know someone who has lost a child or has had a miscarriage or struggles with fertility, will you share this?  Coming from a woman who has experienced each of these struggles, I found these words, “He picked you!” to cause me to fall face down.  Face down in a cry for mercy that I have tasted and seen the Holy Lord of All and I still live.  Face down in a cry of praise that despite the pain and hard moments, He found me ready to be used and the delightfulness of the fruit I bear to be tasted by others.  Face down on behalf of those mommas out there that aren’t able to see the eternal perspective that they too were “picked.”  It blessed me.  Bless another friend by letting them know they were picked.

I know being picked goes far beyond the death of child.  Each of us have been selected for a particular suffering; whether it is terminal illness, mental illness, brokenness within a home that you did not desire, a prodigal child, a temporary displacement, a sick child, a flooded home, or a lonely home; He picked you! My prayer is that in knowing of your divine selection you will consider it a privilege to suffer on behalf of Jesus.  You were perfectly picked by a perfect God to endure and bear fruit that will bless others.

“Blessed is the woman who trusts in the Lord; the Lord will be her security.  She will be like a tree planted near water; it spreads out its roots by the river; it does not notice when heat comes; and its foliage is luxuriant; it is not anxious in a year of drought but keeps on yielding fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8