Seeing God More Often Than Not

Over the weekend I received a note from a pastor who serves in a distant land. He told me about a strange illness that has afflicted his daughter. For years his daughter was confined to a wheelchair. After sixteen operations she now walks only with difficulty and in much pain. To this point the doctors have offered no clear diagnosis.

With that background, he wrote in response to my sermon Can We Still Believe in Romans 8:28? This is how he put it:

We still have no diagnosis, but we do believe the biblical truth of Rom 8:28.

Sometimes when she gets sick (often) and experiences pain and extreme stiffness, it is so hard to see Father in this picture, but through His Grace we do, more often than we don’t.

Upon reading his words, the thought occurred to me that sermons come in different varieties. Some sermons you hear; others you see. My brother is living out the truth of that sermon far better than anything I could write. I think what he wrote is the common experience of most Christians. Sometimes we see clearly, sometimes darkly, sometimes hardly at all. But by God’s grace we do see God in our pain more than than not.

May God bless this pastor, and if it please the Lord, I pray that his daughter might be completely healed. Meanwhile they are living proof that Romans 8:28 is still true.