LoveReign
a Love Affair with a SoveReign God
February 15th, 2023
Happily Never After
I John 3:1-2, ‘Consider the kind of extravagant love the Father has lavished on us—He calls us children of God! It’s true; we are His beloved children. And in the same way the world didn’t recognize Him, the world does not recognize us either. My loved ones, we have been adopted into God’s family; and we are officially His children now. The full picture of our destiny is not yet clear, but we know this much: when Jesus appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is.’
No one—at least, not anyone I know—says, ‘When I grow up I intend to get divorced. I’m going to get married, so that I can then get divorced.’ When a person marries, they don’t say, ‘Now, I can’t wait to get divorced!’ No, as little girls, we dream of Cinderella weddings and tall, dark, handsome princes looking like knights in shining armor and happily forever after and nights in white satin. But it doesn’t always go that way, does it? In fact, sometimes, the person we meet and date and intend to spend the rest of our lives with ends up becoming a completely different individual, a stranger, as soon as the vows are spoken. Have you ever known someone who didn’t recognize the person they married almost immediately after the honeymoon? Have you ever suddenly not known the person you woke up next to who you thought held your forever?
I felt so horrible for my friend’s son. In fact, for once, I was speechless. When the whispers began circulating and the gossip mill began chewing up and spitting out rumors, it was time to finally talk. She had learned recently also so the wounds were raw, not yet scabbed over, still bleeding. Her son was flailing as his life was falling apart. My friend and her family had spared no expense in the wedding of the decade, a prominent union of great proportions. Not often do we run into men, however, wearing sunglasses at night, hiding a black eye, clutching a crutch like a clutz, and harboring a barrage of hidden secrets and excuses. Seems who he had woken up to the morning after the wedding hadn’t been at all whom he had proposed to and promised forever to prior to the honeymoon. A year in, it was becoming the talk of a small town and someone or something was going to die if an intervention didn’t occur. And soon.
~ We have all been there. That surprise announcement, an unexpected phone call, the unsuspecting person, a startling revelation, a tragic accident, the unforeseen, that sudden dread in the pit of our stomach, those words we never wanted to hear, the unknowing and the unraveling. What happens with the disappointments in the hands of an all-knowing, sovereign God? What is on the other side of the tarnished coin?
My friend’s son—he was like a son to me too—was devastated. We don’t always know someone, and that was a hard pill for him to swallow. The girl had been almost demure, quiet, polite, conscientious. It was scandalous, when he learned she was a dancer, that not only her past, but also her present, was tainted by men and drugs and a secret life. And she was mean! He was terrified of her and she made fun of his cowardice as she bullied him into silence. I remember for quite some time after the wreckage, it really seemed this sweet boy would never be the same again.
We all got to witness God’s grace play out on the stage of this kid’s life. The curtain came crashing down during the intermission between Act I and Act II, and it seemed the play would forever hang in the balance. God is so merciful, however, when there is more carnage than one can fathom. Once he was able to let go, once he could realize there are sick mistakes that happen all too often, but those choices don’t have to define us, once he could forgive himself because he was so angry that he had let himself be victimized, once all of it came to a head—eventually, he could move on.
He has a beautiful family now. A lovely wife and several rambunctious and fun kids, a puppy and a nice home in the perfect neighborhood, and its like those years never happened. Except they did. Those long months left scars, which scars always tell a story. He and his wife now lead a couple’s ministry where they work with young people who are getting engaged, helping them understand and navigate the pitfalls that come with any kind of mobility in life. Recently, they were able to help a young man who was going through a very similar situation as this kid who we all loved had, and a suicide was halted, and the young man was able to reach out for help from someone who truly had been there. One of the things I favor hearing from Pastor Steven Furtick (Elevation Church), whose sermons I follow, is how we as human beings see things so black and white, but often don’t stop to consider that the God of the Universe is possibly the reason why some phone calls and text messages don’t get returned. It likely is the Lord’s protection over our future’s that thwart some relationships from ‘working out’ as we thought they would, as we wished they would. So next time something doesn’t happen in the manner you designed, contemplate whether a sovereign God was helping you dodge a disaster or sidestep a mishap that might have been painful or horrible for you to overcome or impossible to survive or recover from.
Jeremiah 29:11, ‘This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I am doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”’ (MSG)
“When we feel like we are not good enough to be loved by God, we should remember that God’s love is greater than our doubts. We must silence the sounds of condemnation so we can hear the voice of God’s loving assurance and remember that He has selected us to be part of His family”. (The Voice, Bible Gateway)
