The God Who Is and Can

Late Sunday night I found out that my dear friend Trinity lost her home and most all of her family's possessions in a fire that started while they were attending church that day. Trinity and her husband Michael have three small children, and their fourth is due just about any day now. By God's grace, they are all safe and well. But their beloved dog Buddy died in the fire. And for the family, all their sense of normalcy and routine and safety and rhythm--and the beauty of a home they were working hard to make anew (having lived in their farmhouse for only two months)--literally went up in flames. Praise the Lord--PRAISE THE LORD--that they have Him to cling to in this time.

As I lay in my bed Sunday night, and throughout the day yesterday, I wanted SO BADLY to be able to do something. I wanted to be near my friend, to wrap my arms around her, to be able to serve her in some way--any way! And I couldn't do those things. Not yet, at least.

But this is what I could and did do. I prayed. I lay in my bed and made request after request, offering up every need, every sorrow, every anxiety I could imagine my friend and her family might have. And as I prayed, I had such a clear sense of God's reality and power. He was there with me, reading every half-formed thought and absorbing the inarticulate murmurings of my heart. He was there with Trin at the same moment, His mightiness spanning the distance between us. He was there with the Wilbourn family, cradling them in His hand. This was the reality of that moment, whether seen or unseen, felt or unfelt. God is.

And He was so ready and so able to take my weak intercessions and work them for the good of my friend. I might not have been able to do for Trinity, but God could. And what He could do for her family with one single breath would excel what I could do if I spent the rest of my life laboring to serve them. He not only heard my requests; He had the power to fulfill every single one of them, should He so choose. God can.

I don't have any grand plan for the conclusion of this post. I don't have any plan at all, actually. But I couldn't help wanting to capture the comfort of those moments I spent praying to my Lord, and the awesome, earth-shattering, simple truths He brought close to my heart. God is. God can. I'm praying that, in the coming days and weeks, He'll once again make these truths abundantly, powerfully, sweetly plain in Wilbourns' life as well.