Tissue boxes

I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hands. vv. 14-15

As I sat in the surgical waiting room, I had time to think. I had been here recently, when we received the jarring news that my only brother, much too young, was “brain dead.”

And so on this day, waiting for news about my wife who was undergoing a serious surgical procedure, I waited and listened for the quiet voice of God.

Suddenly, news! The surgeon wanted to see me. I went to a secluded room to wait. There, on the table, sat two tissue boxes, conspicuously available. They weren’t for the sniffles. They were for cold, hard phrases like I heard when my brother died — “brain dead” and “nothing we can do.”

In such times of grief or uncertainty, the honesty of the psalms makes them a natural place to turn. Psalm 31 was the heart-cry of David, who endured so much that he wrote, “My life is consumed by anguish” (v. 10). Compounding that grief was the pain of abandonment by his friends and neighbors (v. 11).

But David had the bedrock of faith in the one true God. “I trust in you, Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands” (vv. 14-15). His lament concludes with resounding hope. “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord” (v. 24).

This time in the waiting room, the surgeon gave us good news: My wife could expect a full recovery. But even if she hadn’t been “okay,” our times still remain in God’s hands. — Tim Gustafson

Lord, we give You our deepest grief and pain as well as our joy. Thank You for Your constant love and presence no matter what today holds for us. You alone are faithful!

READ: Psalm 31:9-18 When we put our problems in God’s hands, He puts His peace in our hearts.

Bible in a Year: Ecclesiastes 4-6 and 2 Corinthians 12