Unfailing Love

-
On March 28, 1998 my brother Rick went home to be with the Lord after battling cancer for 13 months. Yesterday marked 12 years since I have seen my brother, since I have been able to have a conversation with him, or since our family has been able to get together and have “everybody” present.

This past week in my Bible reading I came upon the following statement, “Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee…” These words were spoken to Hezekiah after he prayed and asked the Lord to extend his life. As I pondered those words, I thought of all the times I have prayed and cried to the Lord, and received a definite answer and assurance that God indeed heard my prayers, saw my tears, and met my needs…hallelujah!

You might wonder how those two points in my life meet together, because surely we had prayed that God would let Rick live longer, certainly we had prayed and cried to the Lord for his health, and yet the cancer took him. I can say with full assurance that indeed the Lord heard our prayers, saw our tears, and healed my brother. You see today Rick is living in the presence of God because we know that “whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord…We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” We have the promise of God as quoted in Revelation 21:3-5, “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.”

I miss my brother everyday, yet I know that since the day he breathed his last breath here on earth and entered into the presence of God he has never shed a tear or felt the pain his cancer caused him; he is alive forever and in the presence of our Heavenly Father because of the salvation he received that is available to all of us through Jesus Christ! I rejoice as I write these words today because they are true and faithful.

Today the song on my heart is one of my brother’s favorite songs, “Unfailing Love.”

Unfailing love flows from His heart and heals my soul
In spite of who I am He loves and makes me whole
I almost can’t believe its true – “unfailing love”
And yet I know He gave His life to give to me unfailing love

Ladies, if you are going through a trial right now, I pray that you will know that God sees your tears, He hears your prayers, and He has an unfailing love for you.

Have a wonderful day!

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 31, 2010 at 3:21 PM

    Very beautiful, it reflects how we all feel. We miss Rick every day but we know that he is in the presence of the Lord. We know that one day we will see him again, love Mom & Dad

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 27, 2010 at 10:01 PM

    Thank you Terrie for honoring your brother,with his memory it brought tears to dad and I,lately I have been home sick for my family and how much they all mean to me I love them all,I have been Melancholic!!!!I don"t know why,but I do want to be remembered as one who loved the family with all my heart.I love you so much Mom.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2011 at 6:56 PM

    It was impossible to hold my tears back today. I know you must miss your brother so much. The only way that I could bare losing my father not just once but twice is the fact that I know one day, we will see each other again. He reassured me of that before he passed away. My dad was so brave, and accepted what the Lord had in store for him. I'm thankful that I got to have him in my life. I miss him with all my heart, and will continue to keep his memory alive. Love you Aunt Terry

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2012 at 9:07 PM

    I am trying to find the song you refer to (Unfailing Love) on Youtube, but can't find it. I remember how pretty it was and wish someone would upload it. (Please let me know if you know where I can find it to listen to it.) I just read a little bit of your blog, but I do agree that you are a blessed lady. I have no children, but am praying that my nieces & nephews not following God closely would come back to Him soon.
    martha2450@live.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Tender TouchMarch 28, 2012 at 9:01 AM

      here is a link to listen to the song on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2a9FNF2UYs

      Delete
  5. LighthousebcMarch 28, 2012 at 8:49 AM

    Thanks Terr, Rick's last words to me were "I...Love...You" I still hear them. I miss him!! The Lord has allowed me to use his passing in so many different ways and situations to the glory of God. Heaven is sounding sweeter all the time. I am looking for that blessed hope at Christ's glorious appearing when we shall all be together again! Love you sis

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Curious? Ok – well here it is for the record.

-
For 25 years I have been a Christian. I received the Lord on May 9, 1985. From that day to today there have been many changes in me and in my life style. There are many things I do and don’t do because of what and how the Lord has worked in my life, and lately I have had several ladies asking me questions because they were curious – so here are my answers…for the record. I will be answering one question a day as this article would be too long to give all my answers in one day! Do I always ONLY wear dresses (skirts) and why? Yes, I always only wear a dress or skirt because the Lord placed that conviction on my heart shortly after I got saved. You see when I first became a Christian I heard that all the answers I needed in my life could be found in the Bible. To my thinking I imagined then that the Bible was somewhat like a cookbook. I could look something up and find the “recipe.” Well, as a young mother (I was 27 at the time with 4 children ages 5 and under) I wanted the “reci
Read more

And They Lived Happily Ever After

-
Image
And they lived happily ever after.   Isn’t that what we all want?   I know that’s what I want; I know I like to watch movies that have a good ending.   I hate it when movies end up sad and there is no resolve to a problem!   I know that in “real life” things don’t always turn out the way we hope and that we must face hard truths – but why should I have to watch it?   I like to watch a movie to escape…not to face more harsh reality! I like the corny movies – the ones where the girl gets the guy of her dreams, where the bad guys get their due rewards, and the heroes get the deserved recognition.   I especially love old movies from the 40’s.   During that era everyone dressed up – guys even wore a tie to baseball games!   In those days the administration did not allow criminals to get away with their crimes – by the end of the movie they had to be caught.   I like that and of course wish it would always be that way!   I was thinking about that this morning, and I realized
Read more

Pictures

-
Image
I love my family! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, loving, and fun family! This past Thanksgiving we all got together and enjoyed a great time together. We were able to have our pictures taken and each time I look at them (there were literally hundreds of pictures taken) I am reminded of the time we shared together. Pictures are a wonderful way to remember special times and special people. Through pictures we can see what people we have only heard about look like - like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, relatives that have passed on before we were born - people that have made a difference in our lives. As I was thinking about how pictures can mean so much, take us back to places we've been, remember joyous occasions, and allow us to see things we would never see otherwise - I thought of how we paint a picture - a portrait of sorts of Christ. We have never seen God, yet we are made in His image. We know Him through His Word, and by what we see in His awesome creat
Read more