Today, I wanted to share a little story/testimony I sorta "stumbled upon" illustrating the love and faithfulness of God. Good reminder, too, of the sovereignty of God to use even tough or tragic things in life for our ultimate good.
---
There once was a little girl we'll call "Amelia." Now, Amelia was raised in a loving, godly home, had a cheery disposition, a vivid imagination, and an interest in almost everything. But, sadly, Amelia had been born a little..."different." Among other things, this led to her feeling very, very isolated in her heart. For as long as she could remember, deep down Amelia had felt a sucking loneliness and sense that, no matter where she went, she just didn't "belong." But none of it really made sense to her, so she went on with her life, melancholy all the time, absolutely miserable sometimes, and distancing herself from reality as much as possible. By the time she was 12, she'd decided that she would never find a soulmate, someone who fit the weirdly shaped puzzle piece of her heart. By the time she was 13, she'd figured out that she could at least snag a few friends that were sorta-close if she made herself something she…wasn't exactly. But even then, her best friends were the friends in her head and she wished more than anything she could live with them. By the time she was 14, the games she'd tried playing a couple years had fallen apart and only made her more miserable.
So that lonely little girl, who could never find her place in life, got angry at God--angry that He'd never been there for her, angry at everyone for telling her that a relationship with God could be deep like love when obviously that wasn't happening, even though she'd "said the prayer" when she was little and read her Bible and knew so much about Him. She told Him He'd have to come find her if He was there and wanted her, 'cause she sure's heck wasn't going to hurt herself looking for Him any more.
Fortunately for Amelia, God took her up on the challenge. Soon after that, He gave her something she'd always thought was impossible: a soulmate. And for the first time in her life, she wasn't lonely deep down any more. Without the loneliness always bogging her down, she began to change slowly. She dropped many of the games she'd played, because, for the first time, she felt comfortable just being herself. She even began to peek out at reality and think that, maybe, it wasn't such a horrible place after all. After a couple months had passed, she even began to reconsider her idea of God and her heart began to soften towards Him. Since her soulmate seemed to know Him and love Him--and wasn't just one of "those people" who were hyped about God but never understood her--she thought that, maybe, it was possible to really know and love Him after all. That maybe God would accept her as-is and be her friend, too. For the first time in her life she was really, truly happy and hopeful about life.
But then, just as things were the best they'd ever been for Amelia… God took away that soulmate. It shattered her--the one person who'd ever made her life a really bright, happy place, ripped away from her. It seemed to her that, just as she'd feared, she was destined to be lonely forever. But, thankfully, God had drawn her to Himself enough so that, instead of falling into a loneliness worse than she'd ever felt before, she finally saw Him… saw how wrong she'd been all those years, and saw that He was her ultimate soulmate. And thus, she began a relationship with Him that quickly became more precious to her than anything else on Earth and, eventually, made her world a bright place again. The lonely little girl had finally found the Lover of her soul.
Now, typically this is where the "and they lived happily ever after" would go. Unfortunately, coming to God didn't instantly put her shattered heart back together. The next two years of her life were the hardest she'd ever endured, in which her newfound relationship with Christ was severely tested and refined. But, thankfully, the story ends, not with a "happily ever after," but with the blessed assurance that, even though her road may be marked out as a lonely one, she will always have at least one companion close by her side, for the Lover of her soul walks with her now, and always.
---
"Our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee." ~Saint Augustine
Standing on this mountaintop
Looking just how far we've come
Knowing that for every step
You were with us
Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say…
Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, you are faithful
Every step we are breathing in Your grace
Evermore we'll be breathing out Your praise
You are faithful, God, You are faithful.
~"Never Once," Matt Redman
No comments:
Post a Comment