So glad to hear the news and rejoicing with you!!! All God's answers are Good, but I can't help to like "I'm going to keep you here for a while" the best -:)

This was an email I received this week. It came in response to an email I sent that declared God had answered our prayers regarding the granting of a VISA (not as in credit card but as in permission to stay in country. Ha,ha!) Isn’t that a great response … “all God’s answers are good”?

After she (my friend Rose, whom I have stolen numerous pearls of wisdom from) wrote that … I felt challenged. What if the VISA prayer had been answered “no”. Then what?

I just feel like a statement needs to be made as many have journeyed along with us on this VISA road. I felt God had asked me to ask Him for a miracle. I felt He challenged me to pray that in October 2010 … and confirmed the direction of that prayer this past week. However, the point needs to be made that had a promise to trust for a miracle had not come … and had the “good „answer been “no VISA”… God would still be good as well as His plan.

I guess I’m just hearing God say He is good (punct). Punct is the German word for period. It can be stated at the end of a sentence, but also when a point has been made. For me, saying “punct” carries along with it a Germanic heartiness that communicates a brick wall has just fallen and the point has thus been made irrevocable – unmoved – set. VISA granted, VISA denied, God is good – punct!

I recently heard a believing in Jesus person pray that all would go well in a certain situation. I echo that prayer … but then pondered on it a little longer. As humans, our flesh cries that all goes well. We cry that our children feel no pain, our car starts when we turn the key, our test scores pass, our church gets built, our parties succeed, our faith increases, our work gets rewarded and the list goes on and on. Yet if I’m honest … I’ve seen the face of my Jesus more clearly and felt the fear of an awesome God more strongly when my children felt pain, my car didn’t start, my test scored bombed, the church collapsed, my party was canceled, my faith weak, and my work unnoticed.

I will embrace that God hears and answers all my prayers. I will announce that He is worthy of all my praise. I will shout that my God is an awesome God. I will praise Him because He acted on my behalf. However, the next time I cry that all goes well and it doesn’t go as my feeble mind imagined … I’m begging God to give me the spiritual fortitude to be just as convinced that He heard and answered my prayer as I am in this moment with an approved VISA in my hand.

It’s a journey … and one well worth the steps.
It’s filled with tears of struggle and success.
Yet when into the eyes of my Jesus I gaze
and the only thing that matters is His embrace …
I will melt and fall with sheer relief
because I'll be home and home will be sweet.