Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,This is the only hymn that I wanted to sing at David's funeral. While there were plenty of other hymns to choose from, no other song seemed appropriate. I did not feel "Amazing Grace" or that it was "Well with my Soul." I could, however, say with confidence that God is faithful yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
And He has been faithful.
Over the past 15 months, He has continued to display His great faithfulness to our family. Although there are more ways that I can recount, I would like to share just one, which involves the story that He is writing in our son Benjamin's life.
In January 2010, Tom and I began to believe God for a miracle in David's life, and we both felt lead to involve our children in asking God to do the impossible. We did not go into this blindly. We knew that God might not choose to heal David, and we knew that this could potentially have a devastating effect on the fragile faith of our children. We also knew that we had to obey, and the results were in God's hands.
So, we prayed. Again and again, our family went before God Almighty in prayer, and we begged Him to heal our son and brother. We went before the elders of our church, and they prayed over us and anointed us with oil in the name of the Lord (James 5). And on that day, our pastor read from Daniel 3.
And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said to King Nebuchadnezzar, "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."
And shortly thereafter, the time came for us to lay our "Isaac" at the altar of God. We did not know what the outcome would be, but we knew that the Lord would provide (Genesis 22:14). And He did provide, just not in the way we expected Him to.
In March of this year, the one-year anniversary of David's birth and death, our church gave us a children's Bible for the boys. We already had one, but for some reason this Bible was special. Benjamin brought it home and read it from cover to cover in two weeks. Then, he read it again ... four more times. And when asked to recount his very favorite story, he told the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3.
Amazing.
On his own initiative, Benjamin has continued to read the Bible almost every night. A couple of weeks ago, Tom read Benjamin the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, and Benjamin asked how Abraham heard God speak to him. Tom explained that God gives His Holy Spirit to His children, and God speaks to His children through His Spirit. Benjamin told Tom that he wanted to become a child of God. And on that very night, Benjamin confessed his sin to God and professed his faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Benjamin was born again (John 3).
I do not think that it is a coincidence that Benjamin's favorite Bible story is in Daniel 3, nor do I think that it is mere chance that Benjamin was born into the family of God after hearing the story in Genesis 22. I am convinced that God used our prayers offered in faith for David's healing to begin a miraculous work of faith in Benjamin's life.
God works in mysterious ways. His ways are not our ways, but He is good, and He knows what He is doing. In the darkest days of life, and even in death, He is planting seeds that will spring forth new life, and the life that He gives can never be taken away.
Great is His faithfulness.
