Through (Not Out of) the Fire

Our sweet little Elias broke his collarbone last week. It was pretty rough to see him so pitiful and hurting. After his accident he wasn’t very responsive, which was so scary for me to experience so soon after Jonathan’s emergency surgery and ICU stay. At the ER I watched him being scanned by the same machines that had just scanned my husband and hooked up to heart rate and oxygen monitors, all of which felt eerily similar to what I’d just been though. As I sat in the ER room waiting for answers about our son, I wondered why God would allow this to happen as I was just finding healing from nearly losing my husband. I couldn’t hold back the tears as my precious son grimaced in pain and the surroundings took me back to those trying days in the ICU.

One thing I did know however, was that God’s presence was with us. As Elias gripped me in fear of the CT machine that needed to scan him, I whispered, “Jesus is with you, baby. He will help you be brave.” I knew it was true, because He was helping me too. I’m grateful He doesn’t allow us to walk through hard things without his sustaining grace. Several of my worst nightmares had become real in recent months, but those nightmares in my imagination never included the peace of God surrounding me. Yes, He did and does allow hard things, but he promises to be with us through them.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, and the flame will not burn you.” - Isaiah 43:2

Note that God’s word doesn’t say he will remove us from the waters or the fire, but that he will be with us when we go through it. I think of Daniel in the lion’s den and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. I think of Paul in prison, shipwrecked, persecuted and beaten. Joseph sold into slavery, then later wrongly accused and thrown in prison. God did not deliver them from experiencing those places but delivered them through. God’s power upheld them and used it all for their good and His glory. On the other side they received a faith forged by the fire of the trial and suffering. And so it is the same with us. Jesus even said to expect these hard things:

 “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” - John 16:33

Because Jesus is with us, we can take heart and have courage in the face of difficulty, just like I told my Elias as he faced “the scary bashine (machine)”. When we walk through the fire He is able to keep us from burning. Though we may be in a raging sea He is able to keep us from drowning. The trials may be great, a lot greater than what I have experienced, but He is greater.