Refusing to Let The One We Love Go

I see this dog, Roxy, regularly on my walks. She is a sweet, attention-sucking giant. Each time I stop to pet her, she immediately sits on my feet. She probably weighs more than I do and this is how she insures I will not STOP communing with her. If it only happened once, I would think she was just clumsy or it was accidental, but it happens every single time she sees me. She is purposefully detaining me. 

Yesterday, I took a former abortion worker to lunch. She left the abortion industry, as so many do, because it was destroying her soul. As so many tell me, she said she struggles to eradicate the troubling images of the dismembered babies from her head. She is searching for new work, with Cities4Life help. She told me she would go to a cousin’s house later to use her cousin’s computer to craft a cover letter. She wasn’t sure of how to write a good cover letter. I told her I would find her someone to help with the cover letter and put out a plea for a computer for her. No promises, I warned her, but God’s people usually show up when a need is presented.

I posted it last night on Facebook and within minutes had two computer offers and a cover letter assistant.

But back to the lunch. She was struggling. She knew she had to leave that terrible place, but she had a family to support. She had never been without work. She was terrified. It took her a long time to have the courage to leave. She said not only the sights but the sounds of what happened in that dark place disturbed her deeply.

“The sounds? What sounds?” I asked.

“Bones popping.”

“What do you mean?” 

“In the two-day procedures, those babies are 17-20 weeks old. They are big. As the doctor goes in and pulls them out, he pulls them apart. The sound is of the bones popping as the limbs are ripped off.”

THIS is legal in our country. Yesterday, one woman leaving the abortion center shouted, “Yay! I did it!” Celebration over unborn children being ripped apart limb by limb.

The only hope for that former abortion worker, for all of us, is the hope and healing hand of Jesus on our thoughts, our heart, and our lives. As the worker shared her struggles from a lifetime, from the earliest age, I asked her if she had ever questioned, “Where was God?”

She nodded vigorously. “I was just a child. I had no control over all that awful stuff that happened to me. I did wonder why God didn’t help me.”

When this woman first left the abortion center, I had shared the Gospel with her and she committed her life to Jesus. I believe that new kernel of faith is what is preventing her from returning to her old job right now despite significant hardship. However, she does not know much about the Bible. I asked if she knew the story of Job. She did not.

So while she sat transfixed eating the first meal out she had had in a very long time, I told her the story of Job. I told her that her question of where was God in the face of evil is as old as humankind ever since Adam and Eve rebelled and were vanquished from the Garden of Eden. The question of why there is so much evil against innocent people is probably asked at one time or another by all of us. It is a question that deserves more than a stock, flippant, answer. It was the cry of her soul when she was a little girl and didn’t understand how a loving God could allow so much harm to come upon her.

I told her how God was challenged by Satan to prove that Job would not turn against God if all God’s protection of Job were removed. God granted Satan the permission to destroy Job’s possessions, but not to harm Job himself. Job’s livelihood is destroyed yet still he praises God. His children are all killed, and still Job says, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” 

So Satan says he now wants to cause harm to Job himself, knowing then Job will cease to follow God. God again grants Satan’s request. Job is stricken with horrific disease, painful boils, a tormenting sickness. Job’s own wife tells him to curse God and die.

“But he still praises God, right?”the former  abortion worker asked me.

“No...he doesn’t curse God, but he challenges God. He cries out why...what have I done to deserve all this...speak with me so I can defend myself....”

“All the things we ask,” my friend said.

“Right. His friends come to comfort him, but all end up accusing him. They tell him all his calamities are because of his sin, but even God had described Job as his righteous servant. Job knows what his friends are saying is not true. Still, he struggles terribly, begging God to end His silence and tell Job why this is happening and let Job plead his case..”

I continued with the narrative. Finally, God answers Job. But He never answers why all this was happening to Job. Instead, He asks Jobs a few questions. He asks where Job was when the stars were formed, or the sun set on its course, or the animals created and cared for. In short, He asks Job if he could understand or perform even one of the acts of forming the universe, and if not, could he really understand the ways or plans or purposes of the One who created everything out of nothing?

Job’s response is: 

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. “You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.'  My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.  Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:2-6)

“God never answers Job’s question of why...instead He shows Job WHO God is and demonstrates that the One who created the Universe can be trusted,” I told my friend. “But in the end, God restores to Job everything he lost. He demonstrates one of the great hopes and promises of the Bible. There is redemption. The years the locusts have eaten will be redeemed. But most importantly, He shows Job that there is nothing on earth which is of more importance than the One who gave us everything on earth in the first place.”

My friend smiled at me. “I didn’t realize that there were stories in the Bible that talk about people who face the same questions I face,” she said.

“The Bible is filled with those stories,” I told her. 

When I dropped her back at her home, she told me, “Miss Vicky, I feel so much better. Thank you so much.”

So when I met Roxy later on my walk, I realized that Roxy was showing me what ALL of us need. We all need to not only sit AT the feet of Jesus, but ON the feet of Jesus. We should abide with Jesus in such a way that we cling to Him, that we do not want to let Him go, that His promises and His truths are always near. Everlasting hands stroking our souls...and we are determined not to let Him go.

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Romans 8:38-39 

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.