Something Pink

God stopped by at 8:33 this morning. He came during the rush of waters at my beautiful new grandaughter's birth. I am so blessed to have been there to help and coach my daughter through a very difficult delivery.
I saw Him in Maggie Rose's beautiful little face. I saw Him in my son-in-law Sal's eyes as they filled with love for his wife and precious baby girl. I saw Him in the care and kindness of the midwife who delivered her, and I saw Him in the hands of the nurses who helped Jodi through 14 hours of labor. I saw Him in the face of the med student who was there to watch her very first birth. She plans on being an obstetrician one day. Today, she went unexpectedly  from being a watcher to being a participater as the nurse let her have hands on and help support Jodi as she was delivering her first little girl.(Jodi has 2 sons)
Some people don't realize how close God is in the everyday pieces of life. I take Him for granted too, sometimes. But not today. How precious is the gift of life. God stops by every day, in hundreds of thousands of lives, as children are born to anxiously waiting parents and grandparents and brothers and sisters and all the extended family members. I am remembering that today. I hope I never forget.

Suffering.

I don't understand this suffering aspect of our relationship with God. Just when I think I'm gaining some ground, it gets swept out from under me. Maybe that is the point. Suffering lets me know I'm on shaky ground sometimes. God shakes things up, so that what remains is of Him.
"Everything that can be shaken will be shaken." I just don't like it when it is my faith.
I know and believe in healing, yet sometimes I just don't see the results to my prayers that I would really like to see.
Then I question what I have prayed, what I need to pray, what did I miss? Does He even hear me?  I know that He does, but it is hard right now.
And when I weep, is it for myself, or for the one I am praying for? Is it for frustration, or for deeper intercession? It is hard to know when the one I am praying for is so close to me. I struggle with what is fair and what is Justice? Let Your Justice come, o God....he has waited for so long.
It isn't my suffering that I'm talking about, by the way, it is the suffering of another that is breaking my heart once again.
And so I surrender to the Lord and His comfort, which I used to bargain about. " I don't want Your comfort, Lord. I want You to heal him."  Not a good thing , I discovered, because then He removed His presence. I can't live like that, so I don't bargain any more. Well, not usually anyway. Now I still want that healing, but I let the Lord comfort me so that I have strength for the journey.
So God stops by in our pain and brings His comfort....and we ride the tidal wave of this round of sickness...but we are at the crest of the wave..now if I can just catch the view.....