God is Good.

I recently finished the book "Erasing Hell" by Francis Chan. It is full of biblical references and the Truth about what the Bible says about hell and eternity and such.. it's worth the read, promise. The point is, one of the last chapters ends with this exerpt that I want to share with you tonight.

Years ago, I came across an article entitled, "Two Minutes to Eternity" by Marshall Shelley, one of the editors of Christianity Today at the time. In the article, Marshall tells the story of the miraculous birth of his son. When the child was in the womb, Marshall and his wife, Susan, found out that their child had an abnormal heart and would probably not survive the birth, if he even made it that far. And so the Shelleys wrestled with God. "This was a design flaw," Marshall writes, "and the Designer was responsible." So they prayed. They prayed for a miracle, they prayed for survival, they prayed that the God of all creation would give the child the breath of life.

Then the day of birth came, and the child was still alive. The child had survived the pregnancy! God is so good! As the child was born, Marshall looked upon his beautiful son: "He was a healthy pink, and we saw his chest rise and fall. The breath of life. Thank you God." 

And then the child died. Two minutes later, their son turned from pink to blue, and he died. The miracle of life was followed by the mystery of death. And as far as the Shelleys were concerned, the Designer was responsible. When the nurse asked the Shelleys if they had a name for the child, Susan responded: "Toby. It's short for a biblical name, Tobiah, which means 'God is good.'"

God is good.

God is good? How could they say that? How could they believe such an unbelievable attribute of God, when everything in that moment seemed to be proving the opposite? Because the Shelleys believed that God is good not only when He makes sense to us, but even when He doesn't. God is good, because God is God. Goodness is inherent in who He is. And the Shelleys believed this. "The name was what we believed, not what we felt," Marshall writes. "It was what we wanted to feel again someday." 

What an amazing testimony to the God that I serve. I can only pray that God grants me the peace and strength to be able to respond like this family when life deals me crap. And I can only pray that you know that no matter whats going on, no matter how bad it is or how hard it seems, GOD IS GOOD. May you rest knowing this today!

A photo update from life since I'm back in Haiti:

This is Mia! Her dad brought her to a medical clinic we did... I fell in love!

Karis turned 1!!!

Me and Kessy at the beach.