GOD IN THE FURNACE
By Gabriel Jakubisin
In the Book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into a fiery furnace. Questions about where God is in the furnaces of our lives are met with the same answer: Our God does not immediately remove us from trials; He joins us in the fire and strengthens us in it. He is Emmanuel, God With Us.
Two and a half years ago, Lauren went into labor with Gabriel Jr. five weeks early. Although the labor and birth itself was fairly uncomplicated, two trials came to light that day. First, we realized the antepartum depression that Lauren had been struggling with, which, when present during pregnancy, often indicates that the postpartum depression will be pretty tough. Second, when Lauren had held our little son for only a few short moments, his vital signs were failing and he was whisked away.
Although we spent hours and hours with him in the coming days, we could mostly only look at him in his little plexiglass box as his little lungs struggled to develop enough so he could breathe on his own.
You would think this would be a painful memory, but it is not. By the end of those ten days in the NICU, Lauren and I had already articulated our experience there to each other as like unto a second honeymoon. We were scared, overwhelmed, concerned with what the future would hold. But, even in that trial, that little furnace for us, we knew that Jesus, our Lord, Emmanuel, God With Us, had joined us. He was in the NICU room with us. As we held each other, He held us. We were closer to each other than we had ever been and more appreciative than ever of God’s tender care for us.
I’ve thought of that moment more than a few times in the past weeks and months. Our God enters into our trials, not removing them from us, but strengthening us to bear them. As Emmanuel entered into a world fraught with tension, mistrust, anxiety, and hatred that threatened to overwhelm hope on that first Christmas some 2000 years ago, he entered also into our NICU room where fear and anxiety also threatened hope.
So also today, in December 2020, he longs again to enter into the gloom of our hearts where fear of illness, loneliness and isolation, anxiety, and frustration again challenge hope. But because He is a conquering God, that hope will not fail and He will show us again, as He has shown His people over and again through the ages, that...
He is Emmanuel. Our God is with us!
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