Giving thanks in all circumstances

I always meet women at retreats that make me think that praying Christian women are what is temporarily staying God’s hand of judgment on this nation. I met Jeannine during the afternoon free time, on an excursion to see Michigan foliage from a train car. She told me a story that I will share with you for your edification.

It was Mother’s Day, and Jeannine was driving to work and saw a traffic accident involving two vehicles. She was greatly moved and prayed to God that no one would lose a child on Mother’s Day. One hour later her perfectly healthy 17-year-old daughter complained of dizziness and died on the spot.

I will not attempt to guess at the feelings of a mother and father at a time like this but will confine myself to faithfully relating what Jeannine did next. In the past she had sometimes wondered if she had much faith, but in the moment her daughter died, she did not know what to do and said to the Lord, “What do I do?” And the words “Give thanks to the Lord in all things” immediately came to mind. You will perhaps recognize the verse:

“… give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, ESV).

Jeannine then spontaneously raised her hand to heaven and said out loud, before her daughter’s body and the people in the room, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him”—which you will also recognize as being from the book of Job, and what that dear perplexed man also said when broadsided by suffering.

In the 14 years since the death of Jeannine’s child, she and her husband have been sought out by many people going through anguishing trials and have been able to minister to them. We might well insert at this point the following thought-provoking verse:

“… unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24, ESV).

We must believe that Jeannine’s response to the testing of God regarding her only daughter, like Abraham’s response to God’s testing regarding his only son Isaac, was counted to her for righteousness and will be blessed beyond all we think and ask:

“… his faith was counted to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:22, ESV).

What knowing this story does for me is to render me without excuse. The bar is now set far too high for me to ever again excuse myself for complaining. Jeannine’s experience with Scripture makes it utterly impossible for me to ever again say that the Word of God does not mean what it seems to say. The Word of God so certainly means what it says that even at the death of one’s child—even after one has an hour earlier prayed that no child would die on Mother’s Day—it is still right and fitting to thank God.

We do not have to understand God in order to trust Him. Let us settle this in our minds. The Apostle Paul himself, though not in despair, was sometimes greatly “perplexed.”

And as for the Jeannines of this world, it is as the psalmist wrote:

“As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is my delight” (Psalm 16:3, ESV).

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