ivw been bent and broken but hopey into a better shape

They need someone to sit and weep with them, not to present a three-point sermon on why God allows evil. Yet, before we present any apologetic on pain, it’s important to remember that people who are actually going through suffering need our love, not our logic. God is the parent who is with us in our suffering, yet also sees the end from the beginning in ways that we cannot fathom. We see only the present pain, the sting of the needle. We are not able to see the big picture in the way that God sees it. Since that day (and with Jeremy now a healthy, boisterous 5-year-old) I have often thought about the way that experience could be compared to the way we are often unable to recognise the purposes that may accompany suffering in our own lives. That the pain of the needle was necessary.

How I wished I could explain to my bawling newborn, not yet 24 hours old, that the doctor wasn’t being horrid, he was being helpful. But no amount of sucrose solution from my plastic syringe could undo the fact that it was a painful business. I was tasked with feeding Jeremy with drops of sugary water as the doctor manipulated his wrist, attempting several times to find a suitable vein that would allow passage for the antibiotics to enter his system and flush out the infection. The memory of accompanying the doctor to the intensive care unit and watching him attempt to insert a canula needle into the tiny wrist of our baby boy is forever imprinted on my memory. Shortly after birth he was diagnosed with an infection which would require a course of antibiotics. The arrival of our third child Jeremy did not go as smoothly as our first two.

Why Christians are joining the board games resurgence.

‘A near-death experience led me to Jesus’.

Ivw been bent and broken but hopey into a better shape