Psalm 56:8-13
You have kept record of my days of wandering. You have stored my tears in your bottle and counted each of them. When I pray, LORD God, my enemies will retreat, because I know for certain that you are with me. I praise your promises!
I trust you and am not afraid. No one can harm me. I will keep my promises to you, my God, and bring you gifts. You protected me from death and kept me from stumbling, so that I would please you and follow the light that leads to life.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
On a recent episode of NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?”, Rosie O’Donnell traced her ancestry from New York and New Jersey back through Quebec, Canada, to County Kildare, Ireland. Along the way, she discovered that her great-grandfather’s first wife, Anna, was badly burned in a fire in their Manhattan home in the 1800’s. Anna was cooking breakfast and holding an infant daughter, who reached out and grabbed a kerosene lantern and pulled it toward the stove, where it exploded. The baby was not injured (probably do to the heroics of her mother), but Anna suffered for 20 days before dying. Anyone who has spent time with a small baby knows how quickly they can grab something and innocently cause havoc… so I truly felt for this woman and her family.
But that’s not all… Rosie discovered that her great-grandfather, Michael (husband of Anna), was born in Quebec… after his parents emigrated from Ireland, somewhere between 1846 and 1861, when the Murtagh family first appears in a Canadian census. Rosie learns that her great-great grandparents and four children were so poor that they had to enter a “Poor Law workhouse” during the potato famine. She visited a “workhouse” similar to the one in which her ancestors were placed, and she was devastated to see the conditions there. Straw mattresses were placed on the floor, with as many as four people assigned to one bed. Children ages 2-15 were separated from their families and relegated to the top floor. The women were placed in one area – the men in another. Over one million people died during the potato famine… many of them children, who were especially susceptible to disease and infection. Just thinking about someone taking my children from me as I entered such a place… cold, hungry and desperate… gave me chills and made me heartsick.
Rosie found records from 1854 indicating her great-great grandparents were living in a workhouse, but she also discovered that two men in charge recommended this family as suitable candidates to emigrate to Canada. Moved to tears, Rosie considers the incredible hardships her ancestors endured. She recognizes the success and accomplishments that she and her siblings have enjoyed, and she realizes that her life has always been blessed. She says in the episode that she would not be here, were it not for the two men who recommended her ancestors for emigration.
Surely God stored the tears of Rosie’s ancestors in His bottle and numbered them. Surely He had his hand upon this family – and others - even in the suffering that their great-great-granddaughter endured – and Rosie compared to a concentration camp. Rosie was able to do what King David did in the Psalm… look beyond her sadness, grief, and suffering and see the blessings God was preparing for her. And we can do the same. Every family… and every life… will have times of challenge, hardship, sadness, and suffering on some level. No one is immune to these tools of the devil… his attempts to drag us down and make us turn our back on God.
Rick Warren says in The Purpose Driven Life that “You will have happy moments here, but nothing compared to what God has planned for you…faithfulness to God does not guarantee success in a career or even ministry. Never focus on temporary crowns.” When we stop and consider this, we can see that what we consider to be extremely difficult… even horrific… times in our lives are truly just bumps in the road in the overall scheme of God’s plans for us.
If we can learn to focus on worshipping God and making Him smile… if we can look beyond our immediate little world and realize that there is a much bigger picture, we can begin to live in the blessings that God has for us. When we realize just how important we are to Him… how everything weaves together to bring us to the exact spot we are now… we more clearly see how important it is that we stay faithful and do our part to honor and glorify the One who counts our tears.
Sometimes it’s hard to see the blessings and the intricate details of how God is working on our behalf, because we get bogged down in the everyday incidents and focus too much on the immediate rather than the long-term. Where do you need to adjust your focus? Ask God to show you how to trust Him more… and trust His promises. Begin to operate in faith that He will not only number your tears… but your steps as well. Realize how blessed you are to be a child of God… and start to live accordingly!
©2011 Debbie Robus
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