Thankful Thursday~Precious in the Sight of the Lord

My sister's husband died last Friday. He's free from cancer's rampage on his body, and he knows a peace that he never knew while on this earth.

My heart is overwhelmed when I think of what it means for my sister to be a widow. But, oh, how the Lord has sustained her in the past week! I'm full of such joy when I hear her voice, because it reflects God's faithfulness and provision and mercy and grace. All of it.

There are many hard days ahead, including their anniversary, his birthday, and her son's birthday, all happening in the next several weeks, so we praise God for the truth that His grace is sufficient and His mercies are new every morning and that His dosing of affliction is perfect.

In the midst of the sadness of not having my brother-in-law with us, it is a gift of His grace to see His mercies abound.

1) That Pete knew the Lord.
2) The favor God has given Catherine in the sight of others.
3) The calm spirit He has given her and the ability to focus and do what needs to be done.
4) The tension He has relieved in certain relationships.
5) The joy of bearing one another's burdens and having in our hearts His truths to speak to those who are deep in the valley.
6) The prayers of brothers and sisters in Christ.

 "You see, when death (came)...it came by an 'arrow sharpened with love'....Every Christian ought to contemplate his own death along those same lines. It is not that death is now pleasant. Let us not pretend that it is. But the wonder of the Gospel is that grace has conquered and enlisted even the dreadful things of the curse to advance the Saviour's cause. Death is still rightly called 'the last enemy' (1 Cor. 15:26), but for the believer the last enemy has already been transformed thanks to the grace of our greatest Friend."
~Paul Wolfe, My God is True

With love,
Trisha