Even So, He is Still Good

I remember August 29, 2010 almost like it was yesterday. That is the day our son Micah died. I can remember the “pinch me I’m dreaming” feeling as evening dwindled and morning came. I can remember family entering, and exiting the hospital room to visit the two of us, minus one. I can remember how there were prayers with very little words and many tears, and everything was understood. I can remember that most of the words that were spoken were the words of David or Paul, or Peter — the words of God. I remember being angry; not at God, but at sin (Rom 6:23). How great and disastrous are the rippling effects of the fall of man! They are too great for me! I remember thinking that.

Amidst all of those memories, I can remember Him feeling very near; even nearer than before. I remember nurses making their morning rounds to visit us as the sun shone through our hospital window.

“I’m so sorry,” they would say, “How are you feeling today?”

I remember both of us smiling, and saying something like, “God is good. He uses all things for good. He is so gracious.”

“You’re very strong people,” the nurses would reply.

“No we’re weak, but God is helping us,” we’d answer.

I remember really believing it. Knowing it and believing it. I remember reciting Psalm 34:18 with Cindy and thinking, “Yes! He really does!”

He is good.

And here we are now. Not even a year later; expecting again. God is good.

Amidst all of the congratulations and smiling faces there is one comment that has consistently slipped past our ears. Always different but always the same — “This is the one.” Just yesterday, at the doctor’s office we heard, “You know God doesn’t do this twice.”

“He might,” Cindy replied, “even still…God is good.”

God is not our debtor. Yet, He gives good things like children to His children! Some of them live for eighty years, and others for only eighty minutes. He is good to give, and He is good to take away. He is good to bring low, and He is good to give us strength when we are weak. Even more, He is infinitely good to send His only Son to live and die as the propitiation for Fatherless sinners without a hope or a home. He is good to keep His covenant with His family, even when we are faithless. He is good to give us breath and sleep. In all of this…He is good. He is good, because He is.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:36