Finding Hope in Illness With Amy CarmichaelChikamu

Concerning a loved one’s suffering

Don’t forget when you imagine, all but see and hear, and desperately feel your loved one’s pain, there is one thing that eludes you. That is the grace that is being given, the Presence that is there. But well I know how hard it is to carry on just as if all were going smoothly at home.

Yes, He often trusts us to trust Him when it does not seem as if He were providing. I have been through this rough stretch of road and so I can understand and walk it with you; and, best of all, He can, and He is nearer than near. Give your loved one my sheet anchor again, Job 34:29: “When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?” It’s such a victorious “who”!

I think the Lord must find it difficult to teach us that here have we no continuing city. “This is not your rest”; I often think of that. We know it, but we don’t find it easy to live as if it were true. More and more I feel that we are what the Bible says we are—strangers and pilgrims. And all the things that happen are meant to emphasize that. But the pilgrim’s God is very close to you and your loved one through these days.