My Son Beat Me to the Finished Line: Isaiah’s Adventure Part 8

This is the second email my Dad sent out to the church, the second day of Isaiah’s Adventure:

Dear Friends,

I’m convinced that the Lord’s blessings and provision are much like an iceberg. We only catch glimpses of what’s on the surface but miss the vast stores that are hidden beneath. When tragedy collides with our life and the storm threatens to drown us in deep despair, it is then that we start to see how great and amazing are His blessings and how much we couldn’t see or didn’t see. You must know, from a man whose life has recently been shaken, that there is a treasure house there for His people.

Some of those new discoveries have overwhelmed us in that they have uncovered God’s preparation as He built into our family the stores of His grace that we would need to draw upon. The Lord’s words to Paul are His words to us as well, where we read in 2 Corinthians, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfection weakness.”

I can tell you with confidence that the stores are endless. What first looked like the top of an iceberg was actually a mountaintop, meaning that those blessings reach to the bottom of the sea and the depths of them cannot be fathomed or measured because they are as immeasurable as the Gospel itself.

There is a mighty natural tendency and draw, at a time like this, to become very introspective, reflecting on things we wished we had done better or said differently…of the many places where we failed. But the riches of God’s grace, that endless fountain of blessing, is not found by plunging the depths of our own souls, drumming up the strength somehow to life ourselves up, but rather we must look outside of us…looking to the Rock “that is higher than I…” We must join the psalmist as we are told:

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains –

where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip –

He who watches over you will not slumber…”

My father’s heart wants to take all the pain away from my children, to somehow protect them, but help cannot ultimately come from another drowning person. My husband’s heart wants to be a pillar of strength for my wife, but we have found that often the only thing we can do is sit there and weep together.

It is then that we are reminded of God’s sovereignty, and what at first may seem like a “cold doctrine” becomes to us a “soft pillow for a weary head”. It is the knowledge that not only do all things come to us by the hand of a sovereign God but by the LOVING HAND of a sovereign God.

It wasn’t as if Satan was able to “slip one through” or that God somehow had to permit something outside of His will. No! Forever no, and never may it be! Isaiah’s will not be a life that was cut short, for the Lord is the one who numbers our days, He governs our breaths and the very beats of our heart.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

‘For your sake, we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39.)

Isaiah is approaching the finish line. His race is almost done and he has run well. I’ve always been able to beat him in every race, but in the great race, God has ordained that he should beat me. He’ll be waiting for us at the finish line and that finish line is looking sweeter and sweeter every day.

Maranatha, Lord come!

Monty Simao