When God Takes Away Everything, He Gives Us the Best of It All; Himself!

Yesterday, I was unlucky. A boy of 6 years was brought in our emergency room. Before that (in the morning), he had been fully alive. He had even chatted with his mom in Britain and, yes, everything was beautiful for this family.

But the devil, Satan, was not happy. Accidentally, a neighbor who has a car just passed over the head of the boy soon after the grandmother had laid him on a mattress outside (I think the young boy had actually laid himself on the mattress the lovely grandmother had just put out to dry).


Please, Visit our book store and have some for Christmas

The boy was rushed in by the same young man that had crushed his head (not the young man indeed, some force above him). We didn’t have emergency Theatre and no ambulance car on standby so we could transfer to Mulago Hospital main center (where there is Theatre and surgeons).

The head had been crushed inside, blood was oozing out from nostrils, mouth, ears, and all the other wounds. We tried resuscitation. Tried oxygen (I don’t think it was even reaching lungs-nostrils were full of blood like a river flow, the same with mouth).

We thought of suction but it looked to worsen bleeding, we stopped it. We struggled with bagging and chest compressions to force his heart, but we failed. We thought and tried everything but the boy went on to gasp.

Our helpless presence

We were present; enough doctors, nurses, police, parents and the driver but we didn’t make a difference (maybe we did; I remember the grandma being grateful to us for all our efforts).

I looked at the helpless, sobbing, crying, grandma and the young driver hopelessly crying, murmuring the name ‘God’ ‘Jesus’ in the middle of their sobbing, and I too cried. I didn’t show tears but I did and I am now.

I moved my eyes away from the helpless crowd back to the boy who was dying in my arms with my palms on his chest and fidgeting with the manual oxygen bag and the these words crossed my mind: “He can take away everything and give us the best of it all; Himself”. But didn’t see their meaning or value in the moment.

And yes, I didn’t share them with anyone (maybe they even didn’t know God or Jesus).

Trying to see God’s goodness amidst disasters! 

When the boy finally gave up on his life, I don’t remember praying for him or wishing his parents luck. My mind was cloudy and could not see God. He was not there; I didn’t see Him (But I know He was).

I cleared my tools, cleaned them while cursing life. And soon our bus entered in to take us back home. Without a moment, I had to rush to the bus and go back home.

It’s when I sat calmly in the hospital’s bus that I pondered on it all and I remembered that God must have been there. Actually, I remembered that nothing can happen without His will and even His power to make it happen.

I quickly considered the divine revelation the mother in Britain had had and did a video-call that same day’s morning to see her boy for the last. And I remember screaming to all the people in the bus;

“Yes, God was there. Nothing happens without His will. He is still in control. And He somehow allowed the mother to see the boy on the video camera for the last time. And maybe He has even a better reason for all of this. What I know is this; God was there and He is in control”.

And then, again, I slumbered in my wild thoughts; how can a parent be comforted in such moments?

Also read this; Seeing God’s love and Kindness amidst His punishments! 

And so as I reflect on the above words again (God can take away everything and give us the best of it all; Himself), I don’t know how I can be comforted by those words once the disaster strikes. And I am scared! God should be enough for us to confess with Job; the Lord gave, the Lord has taken, let His name be praised! (Job 1:21). And yet I don’t think I can confess that!

Making God’s word an answer and true hope for everyone! 

Lately, I have been asking myself a question; how can I preach God’s word to all people of all sorts of earthly troubles and tribulations in the sense that the word of God (or God Himself) becomes their only possession that makes their lives complete and not necessarily using or having God as a means to other possessions?

The answer has come to me; it is presenting God as the ultimate source of true happiness, joy, and pleasure. In other words, He Himself alone is the most pleasurable and precious to have (Psalm 142:5; 16:2, 5).

The temptation to overcome here is; trying to put at one level Gods gifts and Himself, the source of the gifts. He is the source of everything that makes our hearts merry and rejoice and thus having Him personally alone should be enough for us for it means having all He is!

And remember, this is not losing everything for the sake of Christ (not necessarily! It wasn’t sin that drowned Job into the troubles nor can I stand with certainty that the above family experienced the painful death of their child because of sin), but losing everything you already have except Christ.

And so the fight is having all other empty areas covered up or filled up by only God whose ‘enoughness’ cannot even be measured.

And I didn’t know how to comfort someone or the boy’s grandma and the sobbing young driver using the same words.

God help us to understand and feel your ‘enoughness’ 

And I pray that God does that for me, for her, for us all. May He help us find the true joy and happiness, not in the means (the gifts He provides) but in Him only (the not only the source of everything good and pleasant but the real good and pleasant one!).

When He gives Himself to us, may He even help us recognize and feel Him and His ‘enoughness’ in us even when everything else gets destroyed. Yes, God gives us the best of it all; Himself!

May His Soul Rest In Eternal Peace.

Miklah, Your Life in Fullness