Deeper than the Pit

     From this morning's Daily Light: "How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!  Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.  They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.  For with You is the fountain of life." (Ps.36:7-9)
     We are beginning to hear the distant sounds of rolling stones, and it is the most beautiful strain our ears have ever  heard.  Yesterday, Janie opened her eyes and wiggled her toes and her thumb and even blinked her eyes twice upon command.  I've never seen such a gorgeous sight as those sleepy, baby blue eyes looking up at us through a thick haze, but still open and listening and responding.  She turned her head towards us as we talked, and we could see the emotion on her face as I told her a funny story from one of her friends or talked about emails from teachers or rambled on about a future trip to New York city or reminded her about all the people who are praying for her and love her.  I wanted to run through the halls of this now beautiful UNC hospital and sing and shout and laugh and cry.   "Our girl is beginning to come back!  The stone is slowly starting to move!  Thank You Lord Jesus!"   "How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!"
     We know full well how incredibly far Janie has to go in this marathon.  Each time after she wakes, they put her right back under sedation because of the ventilator and all the other myriad medical issues she is facing.  This will be one long, tough fight... but she is never fighting alone.  Not with all these friends and family in her corner; not with the Lord of the universe fighting with her and for her and by her and before her.  And anyone who knows Janie, well, now we know God made her strong and feisty for a reason--for this fight.  For His glory.  All for His glory, this marathon.
     As we face each day's difficult challenges, I want to remember how far we have come, rather than how far we have to go.  Lord, help me to remember the deep, dark pit from which You have brought us.  Remind us, Father, as we go through all of the ups and downs and frustrations and pain of the coming weeks and months, that You were with us in that pit and Your love and grace and mercy and power supported and sustained us every moment of every long day and sleepless night.  There will be more of those hard days and nights ahead... but You will be with us and in us and for us in each of those as well.
     As Betsie ten Boom told her sister, Corrie, right before Betsie died in the midst of the horrors of that Nazi concentration camp: "We must tell them what we have learned here.  We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still.  They will listen to us, Corrie, because we have been here."  That is what we are learning--He is deeper and greater and stronger than our deepest pits.  His love is wider and deeper and higher and longer than our greatest fears and hardest needs.  He is deeper still.
     All through this marathon, one thought has often crossed my mind: wonder at the incredible love of our Heavenly Father for us in His willingness, His divine plan, to allow His beloved Son to suffer and die for us.  Watching Janie suffer and struggle was agonizing.  Painful beyond telling.  To see your precious child suffer and helplessly stand by, simply anguishing.
     But our Father not only watched His Son betrayed and humiliated and tortured, Our Father purposefully planned that agony.  He willingly allowed His Son to come to this earth to suffer and die for us, all for us... all because of the unsearchable "breadth and length and height and depth" of His love for us. (Eph.3:18)  Knowing full well that we would reject Him and fail Him and betray Him and doubt Him, He sent His Son to bear our sin and die for us.  And He watched it all and allowed it all to happen... even when He had the absolute power to stop it at any single moment.  I could never imagine such love.  Such supernatural power under infinite restraint--all because had He stopped the horrific suffering for His Son, we would had lost all hope of salvation in Him.  Lord, I simply cannot begin to understand that... but I fall down in wonder and worship at Your love.
     And so this day, we rejoice.  We rejoice at God's grace and power in beginning to bring back our Janie.  And we rejoice in Your love for us in allowing Your Son, while we were yet sinners, to die for us. (Rom.5:8)  Help us to live this day in the wonder and light of Your love.  Might we never forget what You did for us, just as we will never forget the pit from which You redeemed us.  Lord, there truly is no pit that You are not deeper still.  We have been there, and we know.
     To God, our Redeemer from the pit, be all the glory.