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I wish I could hold you and tell you everything is gonna be alright.

I heard what you went through.
You don’t even know.
I keep thinking how you must wonder how, if there’s a God, He could let it happen.

I wish, sweet one, with all my heart, that just for a moment that I could give you my heart and let you feel and see and taste what I have:
that He is infinitely good.

I know that more now than ever before.
And that’s after the anxiety, after the broken friendships, after the failings, after the watching of family members make heart-wrenching decisions that I wish I could turn back.
It’s after the heading into the unknown because I think that God is leading and finding myself in the midst of it disillusioned, bitter, and wondering what hope and joy even are.

It was then that He met me in that place and showed me that hope is not an idea or an act of the will.

Hope is a person.  Jesus Christ.  Conqueror of death and sin and giver of new life: knowing Him.

I wish I could hold you and tell you everything is gonna be alright.  I wish I could make you know that He is good.

My heart breaks over your pain.
I see your longing for love; your desperate need to be satisfied by someone.
And I wish that I could make you know that Someone like I do.

I wonder if, when you think of God, you think of Him as some far-away, power seeking deity.

I wish that I could take the times that I’ve felt held gently by Him and let you feel it too.  To sense the sweet love of a Father overflowing with love for His Son; full of life through the Spirit and know that this is a God who looks on you with the utmost affection.

I wish that I could make you see how desperately you are loved by the God of the Universe.  How it’s not a cliche statement, for nice church girls who seem to have it all together, but it’s for people like us who grapple with pain.

Dear one, He’s shown me, beyond a shadow of a doubt that these hard things we deal with are not because He doesn’t care, but precisely because He cares.  
He cares enough to let people make decisions, even when they might hurt others.
He cares enough to allow those hard things because it’s in the very midst of it that Hope is found.
Hope is not just despite of all of this; it is strengthened in this.


I wish I could hold you and tell you everything is gonna be alright.
I wish I could tell you that He’s good and that He loves you.
I wish I could give you just one glimpse a gracious God, so full of love that you’ll be forever changed.

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