Birthdays are suppose to be special, a day to celebrate. However, November 18, 1997 was not a birthday to be celebrated. Not your usual, typical birthday. It was my birthday and the day my husband chose to announce to me he was leaving me for a sweetheart he had when he was in high school. No amount of begging or pleading would change his mind.
How would I explain this to my friends and church family! I was embarrassed, ashamed, and alone. How could I face them knowing what an active role my husband had taken in the church. Well, with much prayer and support from my mother, I went back to church. Offering to resign from leadership roles I held. No one wanted me to resign and I found my church family to be supportive.
Five weeks later on January 9, 1998, another devastating event happened in my life. My father died from complication from Alzheimer’s. What would I do now? The presence of my father was such a comfort to me. I was a daddy’s girl and I loved him very much!
What more could happen and how much did God expect me to endure? Losing my husband and father just five weeks apart was too much for one person to deal with. I would ask myself over and over:
Where was God in all of this? Had He left me to deal with all of this alone?
One morning on my way to work, I put a CD in by one of my favorite singers, Babbie Mason. She was singing a song titled God Has Another Plan. I had never really listened to the words until that morning, when I listen to every word. In her song, she quotes Jeremiah 29:11-
For I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord,
thoughts of peace and not of evil. To give you a future and a hope.
I played that song over and over on my way to work. Suddenly, it was as if a voice from within said to me:
“Debbie,trust me and have faith. I have a plan. For you are going through a storm now but what a beautiful rainbow will follow the storm. I will carry you through this storm each and every day. I will give you hope and a future.”
If it had not been for this verse and my faith that God would provide that rainbow in the end of the storm, I could not have survived! He proved Himself faithful! Through all of these trials, I have become a stronger person and my faith has grown tremendously.
Now… When I hear of anyone I know going through storms in their life, I tell them:
Look for the beautiful rainbow God has waiting for you after the storm.
