Everything for a Reason

I just finished reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, again. This time as I was reading I noticed that there were a whole bunch of really profound things that they said. My personal favourite at this point in time; "Every experience God gives us...is the perfect preparation for the future only He can see.” Doesn't that just blow your mind? Nothing that you go through on this earth is futile, for no reason! Everything that you go through has a higher purpose! Sometimes when tragedy happens, we will say "God must have had a reason for this." And it is true. Even if it is 'just' to give you preparation for what lies ahead. 

I would also like to mention that for those of you who don't know it (although I'm assuming you pretty much all do) that today, April 22, is Cassidy's birthday! As I'm sure you also already know she is such an awesome, sweet, Godly gal! I have known her for just a wee bit under 12 years! So Happy Birthday dear friend!

Now you're wondering how I am going to tie those two pretty much completely-unrelated subjects together. And I will show you. 

When Cassidy and the McCardles moved out west to Calgary (I know it isn't actually Calgary, and we do know where it really is, but we always just say Calgary anyways... :P) two years ago, that was probably one of the two hardest things that had ever happened to me in my life. I lost my Grandma to leukemia in 2007, which is the other of my 'two hard things'. Cassidy was my best friend, we were almost neighbours, all of our parents and siblings liked to hang out; it was like a dream friendship! But then when they moved away, it was really really hard! Sometimes it hurt so bad that it was really hard to see how God could have a reason for it. But we just had to keep trusting that He, the Sovereign LORD, did. 

Looking at it now, I am going to say that I really do wish with all my heart that they could move back. But I don't know what God has in store, either for me, or for them. If He still has more work to do in me, in them, in those around them, who am I to begrudge God's master plan? I just gotta trust that He knows best, and that every experience God gives us IS the perfect preparation for the future only He can see! I don't know what's coming up ahead! I don't know why a lot of things happen to me! Even small things, like a bad day with the sibs, broken glass, God uses those things to prepare you for your future. Doesn't that just awe you?! 

I would like to say, just before I close, that I also do believe that being sinful people with free will, that we can most definitely make stupid choices, leading us to have experiences that were not in God's original plan for us. But I also believe that our God is an awesome God and that like it says in Romans 8, He can work for our good in ALL things: not only the good, but the bad. 

So be encouraged. I don't know what you're going through today. Be it something big like losing someone who was close to you, be it something small like a long day at work, or kids who just. won't. stop. fighting. But whatever it is, God is using it. It is NOT in vain! 

May God bless you today!
Em