Opening Our Hands
For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.
Psalm 84:11 (NLT)
At the beginning of 2008 Katherine declared her word of the year would be MORE. Even after a whirlwind few years of marriage, a cross-country move, a burgeoning modeling career, and a new baby boy, she knew deep down that there was MORE waiting for her. Less than four months later, Katherine would be lying in an intensive care unit where she would grapple with how this year of MORE turned into a year of utter and complete LOSS—loss of autonomy, ability, health, certainty, career, freedom, security, and youth.
To truly understand loss, we must first understand goodness. In the words of Sir Richard Baker: “The good things of God are chiefly peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, in this life; fruition of God’s presence, and vision of his blessed face, in the next.” Loss can allow God to perform a Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark-style switcharoo in which he replaces our illusion of goodness with his true goodness.
To make room for his peace, joy, and His presence, we may have to loosen our grip on autonomy, security, or comfort. 'But we are guaranteed immeasurably MORE in return.
The ending of our stories can allow our plot lines to be woven into God’s good, big, new story.
We've lived through what should have been an unsurvivable loss. You may have lived through the same, or worse. What we find on this side of the journey is that loss, in its purest form, is a fear of death. We were not designed to die and the aversion to death is built into our bodily and spiritual DNA. The good news is that when we are connected to Jesus—resurrection personified—we need not die at all.
Christ in us vanquishes the fear of death and loss. Jesus gives us permission to live with open hands and whole hearts, laughing without fear of the future because, in the end, our future is with Him.
