Here's to Hope part II

On the phone with Nate (in Pennsylvania)  he pointed out just how many hurting people the Lord had placed in our path this last week.   See why I adore my husband? Even when time and distance separates us he can still place his finger on the pulse of my soul.  Better yet he can help me see what God's doing when I see only unmet needs.  Admittedly I thought I was simply being swallowed up by life when in fact I was supposed to walk alongside a handful of hurting people.  

Nate & I really felt we needed to clear our schedule for some much needed time together and one important visit to the University of Iowa Hospital ICU to visit the Thompson-Casteel family.  A simple call to check-in revealed that they'd just been called to the hospital to receive difficult news.  Later standing on the fringes I was angry at the fragility of life. However, I did marvel at God's timing, being sent to comfort during the worst of the worst. To be a part of His loving  plan is part of the deep comfort He offers his children, that plus unconditional love, forgiveness and the promise of eternity without pain, fear or heartache.

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:3-9