When life seems hard...we are not alone

Many of us have no idea what a truly hard life may look like. The idea of watching your child suffer seems inconceivable and we all pray we never out live our children.  I think how it must feel to live in a third world country and not have the means to care for your child and how awful it would be to watch them starve.  Or to see your child suffering from an illness they say has no cure.  And then there is our story, one where they tell you the statistics your child's life faces and I have had the blessing of watching as our daughter continues to defy "their" statistics.  I have had the chance to witness to the doctors and tell them our God holds the days of our daughter's life in his hands, not you.  She is not some number on a chart, a graph is not going to define her life, or ruin the plans God already has for her. We have an all knowing God, one with purpose and reason, one that has a far bigger picture than we could ever imagine.  Life can be hard, don't miss understand me, but those who have Christ know, we are not alone. This is not our home, we were made for so much more.  We face hardships, we get broken hearted, we cry, we make mistakes, but we have a God that loves us in our weaknesses, and holds us in our brokenness, and heals us from the inside out.  Sometimes the miracle we are searching for is found in the disease and suffering... when you are down to nothing that is when you are closest to God, and that is when you find this world is unable to satisfy, that we are here only temporarily and God has a bigger plan for us. As any parent who has a child in need of a miracle, we of course pray for that, but we have peace in the knowledge that for those who have trusted in Christ we have life beyond this world: one where there is no sickness, no sadness, and no suffering. A miracle on earth no matter how big it is, is still just a temporary healing, on average we have 70, 80, 90, or 100+ years but for those who have asked Christ into their lives you know this is not all that there is. I take comfort in knowing that there are no premature deaths that God had all of our days planned before the foundation of the world so no disease has the pleasure of stealing my loved ones before God says our time is up.  No one knows for sure if we will be here tomorrow, but I do know if I am not, where I will be headed. Do you?