Just Stewart & Eva: Grasping

This week a young woman, very kind, who sincerely enjoys serving other people, who reads the Bible, and who feels a connection to all the creations of this earth did not know how God could literally be her Heavenly Father. The concept that we are actually His children is not something she really believed. For Him to have a body of flesh and bone, even if it is glorified and perfected, was new to her. She probably understood that in some way He loves us, but she did not have a concept that He understands and feels our sorrows and rejoices in our progress. I don't know exactly what her concept of God was, but I sense it is something "unknowable" and ominous, a being who has all power but does not use it to relieve suffering. Not understanding those attributes made it hard to understand that He wants to communicate with us, His children.¹

This week a toddler walked unsteadily on a slippery parquet and at the encounter of the smallest obstacle, a red balloon, she fell and got up, and fell and got up. I smiled at her unflappability and the delightful joy she got from the very object that was compelling her to learn better how to navigate on her tiny, bowed legs. I smiled at the joy He must feel at my trying.

This week a young father, a manly man, who was forsaken by his mortal father when a young boy, realized that we did not leave our Father just so we could return to Him. That's a pleasant enough idea, but there must be a better reason than that to justify our leaving. He figured that if returning is the only purpose, why would we ever leave? The man calculated that there must be much more to justify the unfathomable suffering Father's special Son had to go through to get us back to Him.

This week two young women witnessed the grim remains of a huge and harsh camp set in a lovely, secluded forest. They were confronted with the reality that abuse and torture and killing can be done with no remorse as a consequence of who the sufferers are, not for what they did.²

This week an intelligent man, about 50, beaten down, admitted that alcohol helped him avoid the problems he faced. He felt free of fear, loneliness, discouragement, regret—for a while. He came to the reality that because life is full of the conditions that prompt these kinds of feelings, he resorted to that temporary freedom more and more often. He confided that he literally had become disconnected from his own will.³

This week a senior missionary couple were shown that there are men and women undergoing trials and tests of faith that might lead you to say, “Their faith will break.” But it doesn’t break, and they do take it. And if you will look carefully, you will soon realize that peace has been spoken to their souls and faith in deliverance increased. Noticing that has made themselves feel again and again and again and again that peace.⁴