Choosing to SEE - Mary Beth Chapman [93]
As I write this, I am realizing the changes that are happening to the Chapmans in these upcoming months.
Tanner and Emily: preparing for a move to Ireland for a year. They will be attending Bible college. May many who meet them SEE Him as they share not only their song of sorrow over the loss of Maria, but the new song that He alone is writing on their hearts. God is their Redeemer, the One who is setting their feet back on solid ground and giving them a new song to sing, a story of redemption to tell, so that many will know Him!
Caleb, Julia, and Will: Caleb has been writing music for some time now. Julia and Will have been right by his side. Now, Caleb and Will have a testimony to steward well. God has entrusted all of them a new song. It’s like the parable of the talents. Caleb and Will can bury theirs or use them for the world to SEE an amazing story of forgiveness and redemption.
Again, a song of sorrow over the loss of Maria, but a new song coming up out of the mud and mire as they tell of a God who will hold them and set them on a solid foundation. (Interesting that our pond is mud and mire, and that is where Caleb held Will the day of the accident and where Caleb ripped Will’s shirt off and threw it into that mud.) May many who hear their story SEE only Jesus who can save and do the miracles He has done with my boys.
Julia is an amazing part of all of this, and may she be blessed beyond measure as she supports the process so the new song can be sung!
Shaohannah Hope and Stevey Joy: God has seen fit to leave me with Hope and Joy. My two princesses give me a reason to get up in the mornings and push through the difficult days. God is the God who heals, and I am beginning to SEE a new song in your beautiful Asian eyes!
Many, many days I still hear the song of sorrow being played, but every now and again there are notes of a new song.
Girls, may you make a hopeful and joyful noise unto the Lord as He continues to write your story. I won’t ever pretend to understand the why this side of heaven . . . but as your mommy, I vow to help you understand that God is writing a new song in you and He hasn’t left you and never will. We’ll sing it together, no matter which way the melody goes!
Steven: You sing your songs with a new fervor! There is a new urgency in you. I can see it in how you sing and in how you speak. But as I wait patiently (sometimes not so patiently!) for the new recording to be finished, I know He has written something new through you!
It couldn’t have been fun, probably mostly painful as you grieved your little girl through the pen as it was poured out with tears into new songs. I know this was a different process for you, but please trust me when I say that the world will SEE and hear and many will put their trust in the Lord. Not because of you and your abilities, but because you have been a willing, broken vessel into which you’ve allowed God to pour Himself. You have set the example for your family on how to allow God to leak out of the broken places of our lives.
Again, I don’t like it one bit. I would be just fine with a perfectly unbroken vase, especially one that wasn’t broken over the loss of a child. But I’m trusting that God saw fit to entrust us to steward this catastrophic loss well. May He be honored with all us Chapmans as we do our best to let the world SEE that He alone is the Author of our salvation, the Mender of our hearts, the Healer of souls.
38
Maria’s Big House of Hope
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:19
June 23, 2009
Tonight we celebrated the official name change of Shaohannah’s Hope to Show Hope! We also