When the Swedish Fish are gone, I begin to panic, slightly. You see, there are few things that we bring from the US that I save for a bad day (or week). I had one bag of Swedish Fish from April. In July, Chad asked how long I was going to keep them. My response, “There’s probably a worse day coming, I’m keeping them for that.”
Well my friends, they were opened recently. And polished off very soon after. There were some bad days. Not bad like “poor me, get me on the next plane out”. Just hard situations, hard stories that hadn’t been personal until recently. Difficult things that you think, “wow, what people go through!”
Now, as I reflect on the last few weeks, with the bitterness of brokenness still fresh on my tongue, I’m grateful for having to be forced to slow down. Maybe being in bed with malaria was a sweet thing? I was made to stop, remember the beauty, I was refreshed by the Word, and reminded that in our weakness then He is strong (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Even more, I was grateful for the hard of life here. Because, in America, I rarely was brought to this point– to where I am forced to say, “Oh Lord, help! In and of me, I can do nothing right now. I need you Lord.” When 911 is a call away, the clinic is there to properly diagnose, every baby is, or can be, delivered in the hospital, etc, etc, you just don’t find yourself in the position often of saying “Oh, Lord, I need you”. It’s because of this I’m grateful.
Oh, LORD, I need you… has been a common cry these days. And in that, He’s there. He helps. He whispers, “All will be well again. Come my daughter, stand, we’ll walk together and my mercies are new every morning.”
He promises…”weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5
And it does. And sometimes, it’s a blessing to weep. And to know that, in and of myself, I’m nothing and I know it. And it’s okay because He is and that’s a beautiful thing to really learn and grow through.
And, it’s also nice to eat Swedish Fish while learning these lessons. 🙂
-Dara Vandenbosch
Compassionate Care Ministry Coordinator, Mozambique
View the original article along with the rest of Dara’s blog here.
