Security

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

In a world where things can turn upside down in an instant, I am so thankful for this verse! As a parent, you can’t help but feel helpless when your child has been diagnosed with cancer. While staying in Pittsburgh for treatments, I met a mom whose child was born with only half a heart and needed a transplant. Things were completely out of her control. How can you stop the fear in those situations? Where can we find our security? In this truth that when you walk with the Lord, nothing—not disease, not past mistakes (there is a lot of what if’s and should have’s going on in a parent’s mind), not the unknowns of the future, not even life and death itself—can separate us from the sweet, sweet love of Jesus. To borrow from Stevie Wonder, “signed, sealed, delivered, I am His!”

Sometimes the separation is unbearable. I’ve had to leave my child’s side during long MRI’s and surgeries. I’ve been in the waiting room for hours. Sometimes sitting, sometimes pacing, anxiously awaiting word from a doctor or nurse to tell me my son was still ok, that I would get to see him and hold him again. I know the ache of being separated from your other children and your spouse because you have a sick child who needs you more at that moment. And I can only fathom the separation that occurs when a child is torn from his parent never to return in this life. If this were the end of the story, we would be a people “more pitied than anyone in the world” (see 1 Corinthians 15:19 NLT). But I’m happy to tell you that it doesn’t end there! A mother is comforted holding her child’s hand again after hours in surgery. A family is comforted when they are once again under the same roof. And grieving parents can be comforted in knowing that although their child is physically separated from them now, they can be together again in Heaven. What’s more, when a child leaves this world too soon, there isn’t a moment, not even a second, when they are separated from the all-powerful, secure love of God!