Finding Prosperity in a Storm

 

This is what the Lord says: As I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them.

 

Jeremiah 32:42

 

We recently bought a walker that converts into a wheelchair for my daughter. While she is not at a point where she needs to use it every day, she is having a difficult time walking long distances. On bad days, she has been forced to miss out, because she has been physically unable to get around reliably. The walker gives her the freedom and confidence to join in activities regardless of how she is feeling.

 

The first day she needed to use it was to help her manage several long walks from parking lots to fields to watch her son and nephews play in their first sports games of the season. My husband and I met her for her son’s baseball game. It was the third game of the day. We were tired; she was exhausted. We found her sitting alone at the top of the parking lot struggling to hold back her tears. Fatigue, grief and frustration had overwhelmed her as she sat with such a visible reminder of the things she had lost. 

 

At 32 years old, she has had more than her share of calamity: a rare disease diagnosis at the age of 25, a failed bypass surgery to her brain, adrenal and thyroid failure, and a post-surgical complication that left her with a chronic infection. Seeing past the calamity in my daughter’s life to the prosperity in her life can be challenging on her best days. Keeping my anger at her situation from clouding my certainty that God has only her best interests at heart has been a day-to-day faith struggle.

 

As I held my daughter in my arms that day while she railed against all that was happening to her body, I felt my anger winning. Eventually she settled down and we made our way to her son’s field. It was a hot day. Excessive heat can be challenging for my daughter on a good day; when she already is depleted, it can trigger a transient ischemic attack (mini stroke). We were three innings into a six-inning game at the hour and 30-minute mark. My grandson son had stolen his way to a home run on his first time at bat. He struck out for his second at bat. His team was down by one run. My daughter was struggling to sit up and stay awake. It was clear physically that she needed to leave, but she refused to let us take her home. She did not want to miss his first game.

 

I could not imagine that she could last another hour and half in the heat. As I fretted about the situation, her son’s team made a home run tying the game. The next batter stepped up to the plate, and I felt a few sprinkles. A few minutes later, the skies opened and a thunderclap ended the game early. My grandson came running out of the dugout with a big smile on his face heading straight for the concession stand. My daughter was smiling, grateful she had been able to make it through his first game of the season. My heart lifted; my anger shifted. A short time later the storm clouds cleared to a magnificent rainbow. 

 

On a day where I was struggling to reconcile a loving God “bringing” pain, it was not lost on me that prosperity showed up in the shape of a storm.