MISCARRIAGE

"Miscarriage"
Reading: Isaiah 61.1-3

"...to comfort those who mourn, and provide for those who grieve ...
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness
instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of despair."

Last Tuesday my baby lost a baby. My youngest daughter Katie was four month's pregnant. She and Jason were happily anticipating the birth of their first child. But the doctors told her Tuesday that a miscarriage had occurred.

"Miscarried" is an interesting and disturbing word. It is intended to soften the reality that a life has ended prematurely. A life that a mother and father have partnered with God to create. A life that already has reality in the womb. A life to which the parents, especially the mother, are already connected.

It doesn't really soften the pain. The immediate impact is sometimes devastating, in fact.
Time will tell how it will affect Katie and Jason. My prayer is that it will draw them closer to one another and to God. My oldest daughter Christi also suffered a miscarriage in her first pregnancy. My son-in-law Tim consoled her with a blessed response, "God knew something was wrong and decided to take care of it now." Whether his answer eased her pain, I don't know but his words were true. After Christi's recovery they started over and my grandson Jake is now over a year old. His presence has now become a light of God's love for their lives.

A miscarriage is one of those terrible valleys of shadow of death David described to us. He never said such places were not painful, heart-wrenching--but he reminded us that we are never alone when we must walk that path. God walks even more closely with us when we must take uncertain steps in those shadowy valleys. And any grief we experience, He will comfort and remove--replacing it with His joy.