Another in the Fire

On these challenging days when my heart is so heavy from missing my girl and the tears are falling down my face I just want to crawl back into the safety of my bed, throwing the covers over my head.  I grow tired of the palpitations of my heart beating like a steel drum. Anxiety and fear have become the soul-sisters I never knew I had.  Recently, during my quiet time as I thought about how fear and anxiety continue to try to take me down I thought about a song I heard that made me think about the Bible story from the Book of Daniel.

There were 3 Hebrew men named Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. When they wouldn’t bow down to the king’s image, King Nebuchadnezzar had them thrown into the fiery furnace.  He even had the guards heat it up seven times hotter before they threw them in! Can you imagine the king’s surprise when he peeked in the furnace and saw four figures walking around unharmed in the flames, with the fourth one who looked like the son of God! If that were me I would have started running for my life.  What the heck was happening in there? How did another person get in that furnace and most importantly, why weren’t they all burned up instead of dancing around???

I started thinking about the faith and courage it must have taken for the 3 of them to even walk into the furnace!! Oh, the faith they must have had! When things start to get out of control, uncomfortable or quite frankly too much to bear sometimes our first instinct is to run the other way, instead of hanging in there trying to figure out how we can deal with things.

As I heard the song, Another in the Fire, I thought about where I’m at in my grief journey.  The words were a wonderful reminder that I am not alone. We are not alone. Not in the fire. Not in the ocean. Remember the fourth man in the fire – the Son of God!  Just like he was there for 3 men in the fiery furnace back then, He is still here today. I’m not saying we won’t go through the fire or feel like we are being overtaken by the waves but hold on to The One that is holding you.