Day 20: Twists And Turns Of Life

Life is filled with

 TWISTS & TURNS,

that

TWIST and TURN in directions that you never imagined,

yet are not a surprise to

GOD. 

As a friend of ours, just experienced a

TWIST AND TURN

that was fatal.

As he had no clue what was going to happen that day,

when his car was hit by another,

that ended up taking his life.

His life.

His life that was taken,

yet he still lives on as he donated his organs.

And now we mourn this great loss.

A TWIST and TURN in life,

that he did not plan.

Who is GOD in the

TWIST and TURNS?

STILL GOD.

Where is GOD?

HE IS in the mourning.

Because if GOD could send HIS SON as a BABY,

just so HE would grow up

to walk from the cradle to be nailed on a cross,

just so that the biggest

TWIST and TURN

would happen.

RESURRECTION!

For JESUS has RISEN,

as HE RISES above all things.

Where is JESUS in the tears?

HERE.

Where is JESUS in the pain?

HERE.

Where is JESUS in the loss?

HERE.

Because JESUS IS,

IMMANUEL, GOD IS WITH US.

Does knowing JESUS minimize the grief of grief?

No.

For grief hurts.

But so does JESUS.

For HE knows grief.

"MY GOD MY GOD WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"

(Matthew 27:46).

Oh the cry of the grieving heart.

What do you do with grief?

You GRIEVE. 

Yet, you don't do it alone.

For when JESUS is with you,

you can feel

HIS arms holding you,

for HE wipes away the tears

as HE cries with you.

Are you facing a

TWIST and TURN in your life,

which you wish wasn't in your life?

Where is CHRISTMAS in the midst of

the TWISTS and TURNS of life

that make no sense?

It is swaddled in a little itty BABY

who

 brings

 NEW BIRTH

into all those heart holes that need a breath of life.

For JESUS invites all to

"COME to ME, all who are weary and heavy laden,

and I WILL give you REST"

 (Matthew 11:28)

Oh how the REST of JESUS,

puts your heart at REST, 

even in the midst of UNREST.

For LIFE doesn't make sense,

 when it is taken from someone.

But GOD told us not to

"lean on your own understanding"

 (Proverbs 3:5),

because

GOD PROMISES to work all things for the GOOD of those who LOVE HIM

(Romans 8:28.)

GOD'S GOOD is beyond comprehension,

for when you experience

HIS GRACE,

HIS LOVE,

HIS HOPE ,

and

HIS JOY

in JESUS,

in the midst of sorrow and grief,

you can't make sense of it,

because

that is when

JESUS overwhelms your heart and mind

with ALL of HIM, 

so that every tear that flows

is not wasted.

As we say goodbye to our friend,

his life was not wasted,

and his death wasn't either,

for

"GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONE AND ONLY SON,

that WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NEVER PERISH BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE"

(John 3:16).

Because of CHRISTMAS,

we have an EASTER of THE HEART~

"Therefore we do not become discouraged [spiritless, disappointed, or afraid].

Though our outer self is [progressively] wasting away,

yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day by day.

For our momentary, light distress [this passing trouble] is producing for us an eternal weight of glory [a fullness] beyond all measure

 [surpassing all comparisons, a transcendent splendor and an endless blessedness]!

So we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen; for the things which are visible are temporal [just brief and fleeting], but the things which are invisible are everlasting and imperishable"*

(2 Corinthians 4:15-18).

For death is never final

as it is just the beginning.

It is

"THE OTHER SIDE"

(listen to the song below)