Please pray

I am weeping tonight as I write. I have a dear friend who is losing her baby. It has not yet happened. What I learned today is that she is 19 weeks and her water has broken...so it is basically just a matter of time. I feel a bit as though I see her ahead of me and a great storm is about to overtake her. I want nothing more than to just hold her right now, but she recently moved too far away for me to run to her, as every instinct in me is crying out to do. I know that this storm is going to be relentless and severe and she is being asked to wait for it and withstand it. Please carry my friend Lori to the throne of Grace in prayer tonight. Oh, Father, thank you that you are with her and that not a tear falls without you seeing. Be her comfort tonight and in the coming days that she might grieve with the hope that the glorious gospel brings. Let the cross be forefront in her thoughts and help her to dwell on what is true. Strengthen her heart to say goodbye to her child. Oh, Father, this is so hard to write, let alone ask a momma to do. You provide grace sufficient and a peace that surpasses understanding to your children. Thank you that there will be a day when Lori will meet and embrace this little one and those redeemed by the Lord will never grieve again.

**The storm has arrived and remains. Lori had to say goodbye to her little one just 30 short minutes after delivery last night. There are no words, just pray that her gaze remains firmly on the God of her salvation. I can't help but think of my Lord, who seeing the despair in my future in eternal separation from God took on flesh and died for me that I might never bear the wrath earned by my sins. That he cried in anquish that i might sing for joy. Oh, the depth of my desire to take this pain from Lori, to endure it for her. Yet I can't do it. Christ desired to save us and was the only one able to do it. And He did so willingly. "...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2 Father, You have put your heart into your children. I believe these feelings are just a shadow of the love you have for us in Christ. Let this grief not be wasted and allow our picture of the cross to become a bit more clear as we feel the deep love for a fellow saint and rest in the fact that you alone are enough.