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Never Abandoned
By: Ginny Graham
Posted on Facebook: Encouragement From Women Who’ve Been There
August 9, 2023:
“But I have calmed and quieted my soul. Like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” Psalm 131:2
I grew up on a farm, so I knew the process of weaning calves from their mothers. I admit I had no compassion for the calves. Instead, I often wondered “when will they ever stop bawling?”
I knew they’d have to learn to chew corn and hay, crop grass in the pasture, find and drink water. They wouldn’t be able to survive and thrive the rest of their life lives otherwise. But the calves didn’t know that. They only knew that we were forcing them away from what was familiar and comfortable.
My husband, Bob, went home to be with the Lord nine years ago. Almost like a calf bawling for its mother, I bawled for my husband. I didn’t understand why God took him. Why was this godly man not allowed to live long enough to see his great-grandchildren? Why was I alone now? How could I shoulder the responsibility of countless decisions when I had no one to lean on?
During that trial, these words became real to me in an entirely new way: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest” (Psalm 22:1-2).
Bob was a Christian, and I know that someday I will meet him again in heaven. The Bible tells us we will be as brothers and sisters in the Lord. We will still love each other but will have a whole new relationship with each other. We’ll remember and enjoy our children and grandchildren. But God will give each of us some unique, glorious responsibility for eternity that we will do in pure joy for Him.
The Lord had to wean me from depending on my husband so I could survive and thrive in the next stage of my life. In that process, I joined Toastmasters, a Christian writer’s group, and a widows’ support group. I wrote a novel. I created a website and cultivated a mailing list. Despite the pain of losing Bob after his 13-year struggle with cancer, I had to ask myself when I would have had time to do the things God is calling me to do today? More important, would I have been ready or willing to accept that call?
God always has a bigger plan, and we won’t know all of it this side of heaven. Psalm 131:2 paints a beautiful picture of being content with what we can know about God. Even though we see only a smidgen of His workings in our life, we can be content with that—as content as a weaned child leaning against her mother. When we trust God with the unknown and the uncertainties of our lives, He promises that He hears and rescues us (Psalm 22:4-5).
Daily Tip: Can you look beyond today and see what the Lord has for you? Can you trust Him to know the end from the beginning?
Dear Father, thank You for Your greater purpose in the trials of my life. Thank You for Your perfect will in my life. I know You’ll never abandon me.
Ginny Graham is a mother to two sons and grandmother to nine grandchildren. She is the author of Wisteria: Rekindling faith and purpose.
Encouragement From Women Who’ve Been There
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