However Painful, Upon Request, Relinquish To It´s Rightful Owner
Since my entire weekend was going to be preoccupied with overnight guests and family, whom I had not seen since last fall, my concern was that I would not have an opportunity to write an article (this article) in time for my Monday morning deadline. I would not have been as anxious had I at least one single thought in my head. My mind was totally blank even though I had been praying intermittently for days asking God for an idea, a scripture or ANYTHING which would give me even the slightest indication of what was on His heart for this month.
God was silent. There was not even an inkling of a message, much less one in it´s entirety, but I was confident that God would not leave me in the lurch so I determined to not let this hinder my spending quality time with my boys and my company.
After supper we were all sitting around sharing stories about the things that greatly impacted and influenced our lives. I happened to remember a very powerful and dramatic story that I had read years ago from Richard Wurmbrand´s devotional that became a tremendous lesson by which I have since governed my own life. As I was relating the story, my husband´s shoulders started shaking and he began to sob. Our friend Anthony also started to weep and wipe tears from his eyes. I looked around the room and realized how much it had touched everyone´s heart and then I thought, "I HAVE an article for Monday."
It is powerful. It is moving. It will melt your heart. It could have such an impact on you that for the rest of your life it may change your response to those things that go drastically and unexpectedly wrong or your response when situations arise that are beyond your control.
The story was about a pastor and his wife who had two little boys. One day while the pastor was at work the boys climbed up the tree which was in their yard as they had done many times before. Unfortunately on this sad day they climbed just a little higher and the branch they were on broke and they fell to their deaths.
Upon finding both her sons lying dead on the ground, the mother gently picked up one boy and carried him upstairs and laid him on his bed and then did the same with the other son. When her husband arrived home and inquired about the boys she simply stated that they were upstairs and that they would be having dinner without them because she wanted to discuss a serious problem with him.
She then proceeded to tell her husband that even though she was not a very vain woman that she had borrowed a set of diamond earrings from her neighbor. She went on to explain that while he was at work she would put them on and gaze in the mirror and admire how beautiful they looked on her. She explained how they glistened and sparkled and how wonderful they made her feel. She was relating how much joy they brought her when her husband interrupted, "There is nothing wrong with that. You´re just a typical woman. Why would that be a problem?"
She answered, "Well the problem is, today our neighbor asked to have them back." To which her husband immediately replied, "You HAVE to give them back. They´re not yours to keep."
At this point she took his hand and led him upstairs to where their sons were laid out on their beds and said, "Years ago God sent us these two precious jewels but today He asked to have them back."
As tears flowed, her distraught husband then remarked, "I´m so thankful that God has given me a wife who is so wise and who trusts so implicitly in His sovereignty."
Copyright Donna Martonfi www.psalm40ministries.com
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