His Ways!

His Ways!

In Isaiah 55:8-9 the Lord declares:  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  That passage of Scripture became so real to my wife and I in the early 1990’s.  We were sitting in the Doctor’s office when we received the news every couple dreads to here.  “You will never be able to have your own children” the Doctor informed us!  For two people who absolutely love children, that news was devastating!  I remember the empty hollow surreal feeling that filled our souls, as we contemplated life without children, life without a “legacy!”  We were heartbroken, and shared the dreadful news with our family and closest friends only.

 

Shortly thereafter, a Pastor Friend of ours called us to inform us that there was a Young Lady in his church who was pregnant and wanted to give up her baby to a good Christian couple.  He told her about us, and soon we were on our way to meet her!  Our sadness was turning a corner, or so we thought!  We met her, and she proceeded to “choose” us as her babies Adoptive Parents!  We were thrilled!  We soon found out that she was carrying a little boy, and we began making arrangements to receive our son into our lives!  I remember sitting in a restaurant and giddily talking with my wife about all we needed to get “our son!”  My contribution to this discussion included a Baseball Glove and a Thompson Chain Reference Bible! 

The day of his delivery came, and we were there at the hospital to pray with the Birth Mother.  He was born, and the hospital hosted for us a “Parents Dinner!”  The very next day, his Birth Mother changed her mind!  Again, devastation and heartache flooded our souls like polluted water!  Was this some kind of cruel joke?  Were we destined to be childless?  Were we suffering for some past sin?  So many questions crowded our mind, and honestly, it was difficult to even “hear” the voice of the Lord.  The weeks that followed that devastating news were filled with a bevy of emotions!  We went through our daily routines mindlessly, kind of on “auto pilot.”  You see, we are Pastors, and we had a church that still needed its Pastors!  But how could we talk about faith and meaning when our own faith was riddled with hurts that only parents who have lost children can understand? 

God was gracious during this time, and the reality of Isaiah 55:8-9, in time, became very real for us.  Actually, it wasn’t until eight years later that we understood just how much “higher” God’s ways were above ours.  One day my wife got a call from a woman she had not heard from in eight years, it was the Birth Mother of the baby boy we were going to adopt!  She was crying, and explained to us that her son, the one we were going to adopt, had been in a horrible bicycle accident.  He was riding down a hill, and flipped his bike.  The kick-stand penetrated his eye and lodged in his brain!  He was in the ICU in a coma and his head was 4-times the normal size!  She told us that the doctors had said that if he lives, he will have severe brain damage!  Then she asked us the incredible!  “Would we please drive the 3 hours to the hospital and pray for the boy!  Our response was…..ABSOLUTELY! 

Upon arrival at his hospital room, we were greeted and thanked by his Mother.  We were instructed by the nurse, that we could go in and pray for him, but that we had to whisper and could only anoint him on his foot, so as not to arouse him, causing his brain to have to work!  Emotions, of so many varieties, flooded our souls as we entered his room!  We gently laid hands on his toe, and began to pray.  As we did, we both felt what seemed like electricity running through our bodies and into his!  The power of God was so real, and in that room!  When we finished, we took his family out for dinner, prayed for them and went home.  We smiled and said:  “This must have been God’s purpose for what we went through in the failed adoption!”  However, the real reason came a few days later, when we received a call from the Mother informing us that the very next day after we anointed him and prayed for him, his brain swelling was gone, his eye was completely restored, and there was absolutely no brain damage!  We shouted!  No, really, we shouted at the miracle of God!  A few weeks later, she drove to our house and let us meet this miracle child, who was at one time, our son!  We truly learned that day that “His ways are not our ways!” 

I do not know what you are personally going through as you read this article, but I assure you that God has everything in His control!  You may not understand the “WHY’S” of what you are enduring, but you must understand the “WHO!”  There are things that you have gone through that you may never know why you went through them, but rest assured, within the perfect will and plan of God, there is a reason!  Your life matters, and the things you have endured in the Kingdom of God, have eternal purposes!  Trust Him and know that “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than your ways!”

Pastor Steve Gardner is the Lead Pastor of Christ the Rock Church of God in Knoxville Tennessee.  You can visit the Church website at:  CtrCog.com

Pastor Steve is also the Author of a blog where he writes on relevant Biblical issues at:  ReclamationMinistries.com