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The Lord gives and the Lord takes away

When Job lost all that was dear to him, his response was “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed by the name of the Lord.”  We have a tendency to read those words and think “Well that was Job, super saint in a different age.  It is not possible to have an attitude like that in our day…”  OH?  How about a young couple who was given news months ago that the baby they were expecting was going to have numerous difficulties? Their response was to put total trust in their sovereign Lord.  The baby, Hannah is her name, was born this week with numerous physical challenges.  After surgery yesterday, the Lord took her home.  How did the young, grieving couple respond?  Here it is….from Geoff and Abigail Stalber’s own e-mail:

“Our God was good in giving her to us.

Our God was good in taking her from us.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Wow…..they have found their God to be sufficient in a time of great loss.  To be honest with you, it was no surprise to me, for this is a unique couple with a deep confidence in their Lord.  Geoff is an integral part of our leadership team at Heritage and we love he and Abi deeply.  We sorrow with them this week, for that is what the body of Christ  does, we  rejoice together and we sorrow together……we are a family, and can I let you in on a secret? I love being part of this family even….let me restate that…..ESPECIALLY during the hard times.  People like Geoff and Abi challenge us all to “trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding..”.  Geoff and Abi, we love you.