A Future Greater Than the Past

I remember how I felt that first New Year's Days after Hannah went to Heaven.

To be perfectly honest ... it was awful.

While part of me was relieved to slam the door on 2009, and all the pain and grief it contained, the thought of living through an entire 365 days without Hannah was mind-boggling.  I could not imagine how I was going to survive even that first day of January, much less a whole year.  And as I considered the fact that that year would be followed by another year, and then another, and another ... It was almost more than I could handle.

In fact, it was more than I could handle alone.  It's only been by God's help that I've survived 2010, 2011, 2012, and now 2013. And it is only through His strength that I can look forward with joyful anticipation to 2014.

A few days ago, I posted an excerpt from a devotional by Max Lucado on our While We're Waiting Facebook page.  This post was far and away the most "liked" comment we've ever had on that page.  Here is part of what I posted ...

In May of 2008, Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth lost their five-year-old daughter in an automobile accident.  They were deluged by messages of kindness.  One in particular gave Steven strength.   It was from a pastor friend who’d lost his son in an auto accident. “Remember, your future with your daughter will be greater than your past with her.”

For me, personally, that may be the single most comforting thing I've read in the past five years.  What a great reminder of what I (and what all of us who know Jesus Christ as our Savior) have to look forward to!

And in the meantime, while we're waiting for that future, it helps to remember the words of Lamentations 3:22-23 ...  "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

His compassion will not fail us ... We will not be consumed ... His mercies are new every morning ... and His faithfulness is great.