A wish lantern and an answered prayer.....

It has been an emotional week at our house.....on Monday, I posted on my FB page asking for prayer for a college friend whose son collapsed and died during soccer practice.....a life cut entirely too short by an unknown heart defect.  


My friend Alison of Stuff and Nonsense wrote a beautiful post about it HERE entitled Another Thursday....grab a tissue if you hop over to read it....


Another friend brought her daughter home from the hospital on Thursday, their lives completely changed......what started as a fever has been diagnosed as juvenile arthritis......nothing will be the same.....


In our house, the tears have been flowing today.....our cat that adopted us last winter is sick......in the midst of the "recovery" effort which included taking the deck apart.....he ran away....


At times like this, when life seems so confusing....and so sad....it's easy to start questioning if God cares.....


As I was driving home tonight from a quick trip to our grocery store and just crying about all of these events this week, I was reminded of that verse in John where it is recorded that "Jesus wept...."


He cried, too.....tears also ran down his face and his heart hurt over the death of a close friend......


I drew comfort tonight in the fact that God was hurting tonight, too......His heart is broken by the curse of sin that causes death, pain and suffering.....I imagine that He is anxiously awaiting the day of His return to make things right and new again....


My hubby has had this "wish lantern" sitting around....he needed to test it out for work.......if you've seen the movie Tangled then you know what a wish lantern is.  The town sets them off every year for the lost princess on her birthday.....


We watched Tangled this afternoon so my hubby suggested that we make it our "prayer" lantern......I wept tonight as I saw my baby girl's face streaming with tears and her hands folded while her lips cried out a prayer to God...."Please bring Chloe home...."


I just prayed...."Please reward the faith and hope of my children....."


We waited.....and waited....and no cat....we came in and I put my daughter to bed....still crying....


Then....suddenly, my son came flying up the stairs....they found the cat!


Thank you, Jesus....for caring enough to send our sick cat home.....for hearing the prayers of a little girl....


Truthfully....the cat may still die tonight.......and my friends are still suffering, but in my heart.....and the heart of my kids....they saw a glimpse of God's heart tonight......they felt His care.....

Pain is part of life.....there's no escaping it in a cursed and sinful world...

but I know that HOPE is coming.....

and that God cares when His children are sad....