Sunday, October 2, 2011

Don't I have enough faith?

I was talking to friends at church this morning about our mutual friends who have received sad news about their unborn baby this week (see the posts below).

Some of them were saying that we should keep praying for healing for their little boy, that God might still have work to do in forming this child. What was interesting was that these were people who have walked a similar path, those who have lost a child themselves.

I don't know how to feel about this. I have no experience of losing a child, except for a very early miscarriage many years ago.

Is my acceptance of the news that our friends are most likely going to lose their baby either prior to or soon after birth because I don't have enough faith in God's ability to work a miracle? Could it be because, indirectly, I work as part of the "medical system" that diagnoses disability and breaks bad news to families and do I (wrongly) have more faith in that system than in God?

God may choose to bring healing and life in these circumstances. I don't know if He will. But He doesn't promise us this. We know from the Bible the exact opposite actually. As Christians, we should expect suffering on this side of heaven.
Maybe I misunderstood what was being said this morning in the fog of my own grieving. Perhaps my friends who are praying for healing and that God still has work to do in this little person's life aren't praying for him to be made whole again but that whatever happens, his life (however long or short it might be) will be a blessing to God and to other people as well.

Perhaps my grief right now relates to the fact that whatever happens in the life of this beautiful little baby, he is not the baby our friends had planned and expectantly hoped for and the dreams we shared of having our little ones grow up together, only a few months apart in age, will most likely not come to pass.

That is the loss I am sad about. And the loss that they are sad about too. But maybe when I can move a little further past this sadness, I can pray too that the life of their little boy will be a meaningful and valuable one to many. And that the witness of our friends as they go through this time will be a great blessing to those around them.

2 comments:

simone r said...

That is really sad. I've prayed for you and your friends, that you'll trust that God is good whatever the outcome and that the life of this little one - however long or short - will bring glory to Him. May God comfort you all in your pain and disappointment. There is another world ahead where your kids will play together.

Karen said...

Thanks for your kind words, Simone, I do appreciate your prayers too. Hope I'll see you tomorrow night at Twist, still feeling OK here but it will be a late night by the time I get back home so will see how I'm going tomorrow :)