At Five Minute Fridays, you take a topic and just write for five minutes with no critical editing and no need to perfect it. They should call it Freedom in Five! Anyway, the topic today is JOY. And since we always talk about His Presence here on Fridays, I thought it was a perfect match.
Joy in His Presence
Bekah and I had fervently prayed for her for several months. Keisha, my sister-in-love's sister, had been diagnosed with Wegener's disease, an auto immune disease that attacks your entire body. She was barely 30 years old with a husband and three children at home. She had her ups and downs in the hospital. Some days looked hopeful. Other days seemed desperate.
Bekah was on her way to her first grade classroom the day we received the dreaded phone call. I decided to wait until she got home from school to tell her about Miss Keisha's death.
"Bekah, I have some bad news."
"Yes, Mommy?"
"Bekah, Miss Keisha died last night."
"So...what's the bad news?"
"Bekah, sweetie, that is the bad news."
"But, Mommy, Miss Keisha went to be with Jesus. How can that be bad?"
Words spoken confidently and beautifully by my six year old daughter challenged my heart and my thinking. To Bekah, joy was and is and will always be found in the the presence of Jesus. You see, Bekah had just accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior and Joy just a few weeks before Miss Keisha's death. Seemed like she totally understood Paul's words, "To live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Phil. 1:21) Oh, to have the childlike faith that says...
"My heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." Psalm 16: 9 - 11
So tell me, friend, have you found the joy that only the presence of God brings? Please share! And if you are struggling right now with finding joy in the midst of your circumstances, I would love to pray for you.
Unwrapping the gift of JOY in His presence,
Kelli
8 comments:
Linked up right after you at Five Minute Friday, and so glad I did. What a precious truth from your daughter! The world seems so heavy today, even more than usual. I'm so thankful for all of these simultaneous reminders from likeminded women of what joy really is.
Thanks, Kelli, and keep writing!
How perfectly trusting she is! It is a rebuke to my soul..thank you for sharing this!
Amanda and Rebekah, Thanks for stopping by! My Bekah has always been an "old" soul...wise beyond her years. But these words that she spoke 6 years ago have haunted me. How I long to have that unshakable confidence and the joy that comes with it! I am in process...
love the faith of children:) also loved that passage from Ps. 16. so beautiful:)
What precious words of trust from your little one! I imagine Jesus received them like a gift from her heart. Loss of community, of relationship is so sad for us left here. I love how she saw the gain for the dear one going home.
That is beautiful! What precious words Bekah said. Being with Jesus is a wonderful thing.
Thank you for stopping by my blog and for your kind an encouraging words.
I love how HE uses our children to help us learn a lesson or to simply show us the truth through their childlike faith when our brains may be too cluttered to see it. And yes, that sweet Bekah is wise beyond her years...love that girl!
I love it when my kids usher God's truth straight into my heart. Beautiful post!
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