Ben

The announcement just came - the one that I've dreaded for the past six weeks. Little Ben Towne has left his shell behind and hearts are breaking all around the world. I sit weeping for his family and can't imagine the searing pain they must be feeling. The sadness even strangers feel as we've been privileged to enter their story. Now we're privileged to carry some of their pain.

In light of this news the verses that God impressed upon me this morning seem even more alive. I was looking for my first passage to memorize as part of Beth's challenge and the following jumped out at me:
Romans 8:22-25
"All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us, it's within us. the Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, anymore than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy."

This is my passage to memorize but Paul goes on to say:

"Meanwhile the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good."
vs. 26-28 The Message Bible

For all those who've been touched by Ben, may we all come to know how he's enlarged our lives. Especially his family. Groaning for them, Heidi