Reason #788
It's amazing how quickly your life can change. As we were driving home from church this afternoon, we talked about how much our lives have changed over the past few years. You spend the majority of your life going to school, and after years of studying and test taking, you walk across the stage to get your diploma, and you're life is suddenly changed. One day, you're walking around fully living the single life, and then you meet your future spouse and your life is forever changed that very instant. And then one day, you're living up newlywed life, enjoying all the fun and selfishness that comes with being footloose and fancy free, and you take a pregnancy test and your life is permanently changed forever. You lose a job, you get a new job. A loved one passes away, a new baby is born. You move, get in a car wreck, receive a diagnosis, and your life is never the same again. That's life for you, one big change that never stops changing.
Tonight Aaron and I spent the evening at my parents' house. We ate dinner with my mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law, and then followed it up with an intense game of Scategories. We spent a good hour laughing about our crazy answers and debating whether or not they really counted. We joked around with one another and decided that the winner would clean the kitchen since we knew Aaron had the most points. We passed Scout around the table, as she is seen as "the baby," and at the end of the night I thought about how much I want life to stay the same. I thought about how sweet these moments are. I thought about how much I love spending time with family and enjoying a night of good food and laughter. I thought about all that we've been through as a family. About how we've all had a tough past few years. We've all gone through a whole, whole lot of big changes, but I thought about how irrelevant it seems when we're together. And I suppose that's the beauty of family, isn't it? Because it's not easy going through change alone. It's not always easy playing the hand you're dealt by yourself. It's hard to endure those heartbreaking adjustments, to handle the stress of life changing events, or to walk through your hardest trials when you have no one to walk through it with you. And that's where family steps in. That's when you look around and you said, "I have no idea how in the world I am going to get through this. The good thing is, I don't have to walk through it alone." That's what family does. We go through the changes together, and because of that, we find a way to get through them somehow.
The day Jesus hung on the cross, He thought about His family. Jesus knew how important family was. After all, God created family and intended it for good. But Jesus hung there and He looked at His mother who was weeping at His feet. I can imagine, at that moment, she thought, "How am I ever going to get through this? This is too much to bear. Too devastating to endure." Joseph wasn't beside her, none of her other children had accompanied her to the cross, and so in his agony, in excruciating pain, look what Jesus did.
"When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home." - John 19:26-27
He didn't leave her to walk through the struggle on her own. She wasn't isolated in her sorrows. She didn't have to go home at the end of that day and be by herself as the shock of what had happened set in. She had a son who was there for her, watching out for her, and walking through it with her. Mary was able to get through it because Jesus made sure she had someone to help her face one of life's most trying moments. And don't you know that the day she was reunited with her son again, the day she saw Him with her own eyes, made all of those difficult days seem not so hard because she had gotten through them with His help.
Changes come whether or not we're ready for them, and I just praise the Lord for the help of family so that when the going gets tough, you don't ever have to go it alone.
#788 - For the help He has given us in family.
"Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” - Genesis 2:18
Tonight Aaron and I spent the evening at my parents' house. We ate dinner with my mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law, and then followed it up with an intense game of Scategories. We spent a good hour laughing about our crazy answers and debating whether or not they really counted. We joked around with one another and decided that the winner would clean the kitchen since we knew Aaron had the most points. We passed Scout around the table, as she is seen as "the baby," and at the end of the night I thought about how much I want life to stay the same. I thought about how sweet these moments are. I thought about how much I love spending time with family and enjoying a night of good food and laughter. I thought about all that we've been through as a family. About how we've all had a tough past few years. We've all gone through a whole, whole lot of big changes, but I thought about how irrelevant it seems when we're together. And I suppose that's the beauty of family, isn't it? Because it's not easy going through change alone. It's not always easy playing the hand you're dealt by yourself. It's hard to endure those heartbreaking adjustments, to handle the stress of life changing events, or to walk through your hardest trials when you have no one to walk through it with you. And that's where family steps in. That's when you look around and you said, "I have no idea how in the world I am going to get through this. The good thing is, I don't have to walk through it alone." That's what family does. We go through the changes together, and because of that, we find a way to get through them somehow.
The day Jesus hung on the cross, He thought about His family. Jesus knew how important family was. After all, God created family and intended it for good. But Jesus hung there and He looked at His mother who was weeping at His feet. I can imagine, at that moment, she thought, "How am I ever going to get through this? This is too much to bear. Too devastating to endure." Joseph wasn't beside her, none of her other children had accompanied her to the cross, and so in his agony, in excruciating pain, look what Jesus did.
"When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home." - John 19:26-27
He didn't leave her to walk through the struggle on her own. She wasn't isolated in her sorrows. She didn't have to go home at the end of that day and be by herself as the shock of what had happened set in. She had a son who was there for her, watching out for her, and walking through it with her. Mary was able to get through it because Jesus made sure she had someone to help her face one of life's most trying moments. And don't you know that the day she was reunited with her son again, the day she saw Him with her own eyes, made all of those difficult days seem not so hard because she had gotten through them with His help.
Changes come whether or not we're ready for them, and I just praise the Lord for the help of family so that when the going gets tough, you don't ever have to go it alone.
#788 - For the help He has given us in family.
"Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” - Genesis 2:18