Dear Mac,
My friend, it has been my very great privilege to get to know you, and I am the better for it. How I wish it had been under different circumstances though!
I was just reading today the pastoral letters of Samuel Rutherford to Lady Jane Kenmure, a member of his congregation in Anwoth, Scotland. Rutherford wrote many letters of comfort to her as she went through the loss of two daughters, her husband, and then shortly thereafter her son. Coming as they did in the span of a few short years, these losses proved a staggering blow to her, were it not for her faith, the consoling words of her dear Pastor, and ultimately the love of her savior, she would have died of grief herself. But by these means, God bore his child through these storms, just as I believe he is carrying you and Kim even now. Let me briefly share with you part of one of the poems contained in Rutherford's letters to Lady Kenmure, this on the death of her young son:
O Child of God this grief
That bows our spirit low
Is yours but half, for Christ Himself
Still Shares His people's woe.
His wisdom planned it out
Then bore it on His heart
Till gently on your untried back
Love laid the lesser part.
So take it all with joy,
Together bear the cross,
For while you suffer He distils
A heaven from your loss.
...
Each day spend out in faith,
Nor prove his labour vain;
Cast still on Christ the pressing weight
Who only can sustain.
Well Mac, Gold and silver have I none, but what I do have, I will freely give. Please keep us updated.
- SEAGOON
