“And it came…to pass”
The lights are low. In the center of the stage, a man is preachin’. One by one, he’s bringin’ up parishioners with one, simple question: “What is your favorite verse?” From the Shepherd’s Psalm to the Book of John, they, each one, share their best. And then he calls on John. At 92, he’s a patriarch of the congregation. His answer? It’s most surprising. “My favorite verse,” he says from up in front, “is this, ‘And it came to pass…’”
All week long, the terrible photographs have come through my newsfeed. A buggy, crushed, shattered. Pieces strewn across a highway. In the next frame, a red truck, its front smashed in, metal caved. Cab’s empty.
On Sunday last, a family of nine were on their way to church when Tragedy came hurtlin’. Screech of brakes, a tearin’ of wood, and the family of nine is now six. “And it came.”
Sometimes, no words will suffice. Some pain can’t be framed; can’t be painted with consonants or vowels. Only groaning articulates such loss. “And it came.”
In my 11-year-old, blue-eyed boy’s schoolroom, a classmate’s world has been rockin’. He, like my son, is his family’s caboose, and his mama’s been fightin’ with cancer. On the mat. A lesion excised, over months metastasized. Then the tiger a-roarin’ returned. “And it came.”
A friend close to me lost her entire family; both parents, all siblings. Four years. Sole survivor. My God! How this woman has suffered. “And it came.”
In my own life, I have known the sting of suffering. Of rejection. Of loneliness that went to the bone. We have lived from one check to the next; nothing extra, the numbers all grim and alarming. “And it came.”
I have known the agony of a son gone astray, a Prodigal Beloved in far country. “And it came.”
If I could sit down across from you, I’ll bet you could tell me a story of your own. A story of pain and of testing. There’s not a-one of us that can be born here and live that doesn’t have heartache and hurtin’. In a dark, fallen world, trouble comes. For us all. Every one of us can say those hard words, “Yes, it came.”
But.
Oh, great and wonderful ‘but!’
But for the child of God, that’s only one part of the sentence. Yes, hard things will come, but hark. What did I just hear? Notes of hope from the pages of Scripture. “And it came…to pass.”
It came…to pass! Oh, for us, the sheep of His flock, the children of the Father, every hard thing that’s come, has come to pass.
Very often (and I would tell you specifics, should you and I be chatting), it passes eventually. God brings us through it. It passes, and we’re allowed to see His glory. Trial’s over.
A sickness is healed. Financial difficulties end. That relationship that’s painin’? It’s mended. A job is restored, what’s lost is now found. By grace, that which came, it does pass.
For all that will never be set right here; for the sick who are not healed. For the suffering that comes and doesn’t pass on this earth…
One wonderful, heavenly day, it SHALL pass. For good. For ever and always, amen.
Dear one, you who are hurtin’ because of what’s come, let these words fuel your courage, your endurance. Yes, Trouble has come, has pushed through your front door. But it’s come, my friend, come to pass.
Warmly,
Rhonda
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning (Ps. 30:5).”
With thanks to Pastor Chris Knight for sharing the story that lit a spark in my heart. Which simply would not go out.