Through the Graves to the Gardens by Kelly Stine

I remember where I was standing in the middle of Old Navy getting last minute items for a mission trip to Ireland when the dreadfully painful words hit my ears, “you have lost the baby.”  Suddenly I was shell shocked and it was like I was in a muted life and everything felt like it was moving faster than I was.  I couldn’t say anything or do anything.

A few days before when I saw suspect evidence of a miscarriage, I began to pray, and when I did I felt the Lord say “Blood doesn’t just mean death.  I shed my blood so that you could have life.”  These words resonated with me and rested on me.  I have remembered these words ever since and when circumstances seem confusing or desperate (or anywhere in between), I get to remember that I serve a God who has put resurrection power on display through the cross and the empty tomb.

When I heard those words, I thought He was assuring me that I wasn’t miscarrying and that everything would be fine (that’s how my finite human mind works sometimes because I want what I want), BUT what He was saying was that “He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28) and “For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.  Though its roots grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant (Job 14).”  He was saying that He was with me and that He has me.  He was reminding me that even when things don’t go my way or the way I think they should that He is sovereign and faithful.

“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces MANY seeds.” (John 12:24) When I realize that dying to my will and my way will produce life, then I am able to be planted in the promise of seeing the harvest.

When it seemed bleak and the ache of my circumstance could have overtaken me, I was clinging to the promise that this death would produce life in me, my marriage, and my family.  It was the beginnings of a refining season that produced treasures that I would never take back.

With God nothing is impossible and He who began a good work is faithful to complete it.  When I want things to happen in my time and in my way, I am comforted and assured by Isaiah 55:8 that declares God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways.

Sister, if you are sitting pretty I bless you there.  If you are in the middle of a mess, whether it is a result of your own choices or external circumstances, I pray that the God of the universe will remind you that you are not alone.  I pray that the truth of His bloodshed, that meant life for you, would sink deep into your being.  If you are coming out of the fog, I bless you to see the face of the One who catches all of your tears and makes all things new.  I bless you to rest in the character of God and the fruit of the Spirit.  Your health, relationships, career, kids, husband, education, or finances may FEEL hopeless, but take heart my dear - no trouble is too great and no relationship or person is too far gone for God.  He spoke life into existence and He will do it again.