August 2, 2006

• For this we have Jesus….

  I was going through some old writings of Elisabeth Elliot’s and ran across this article in one of her old newsletters from November/December 2000. ( http://elisabethelliot.org )

  
  

  I pray that God’s grace will teach my heart to say the same in times of trials…. “For this we have Jesus”! 

  
  

  I hope it ministers to you as much as it did to me.

  
  

  “NOT ANGRY AT GOD”

  
  

  The May/June issue quoted a letter I had received from a

  
  

  reader who was angry at God. In response, Betty Jo

  
  

  Mathis, who reads this newsletter, wrote to me of a

  
  

  family named Yuill whose children were traveling in a

  
  

  school bus last January when a snow plow, loaded with

  
  

  sand, was making its way north through the hills

  
  

  of Wyoming. Neither driver, each with impeccable

  
  

  driving records, could swerve on the black ice to avoid

  
  

  the horrific collision that sheared off most of the

  
  

  passenger side of the bus. Two of the four Yuill children

  
  

  were killed.

  
  

  Well-meaning friends suggested that the parents

  
  

  receive counseling “for their anger.” Dear, simple,

  
  

  trusting folks as the Yuills are, they could not help being

  
  

  surprised that anyone should suggest such a thing.

  
  

  “Angry? How can we be angry?” they said. “Sure, we

  
  

  don’t have our children, but we’re not angry. For this we

  
  

  have Jesus.”

  
  

  After the committal, the Yuills graciously greeted

  
  

  friends and family. They showed no bitterness, no angry

  
  

  lashing out at God, just quiet submission to the Father

  
  

  whose ways and thoughts are higher than ours. The

  
  

  world at large doesn’t understand such submission; they

  
  

  don’t know that God not only dwells in the high and

  
  

  holy place, but also with him who has a humble spirit;

  
  

  it is to them that God gives grace.

  
  

  Life must go on. Relatives went home. Brenda Yuill

  
  

  set about the bitter-sweet task of putting away her

  
  

  children’s things. One older brother went back to

  
  

  school, another returned to his ship off the east coast.

  
  

  Carl Yuill drove his old red pickup into town as usual

  
  

  and helped pick up the town rubbish. Brenda resumed

  
  

  her job at the post office.

  
  

  On Sundays, you find the Yuills driving forty miles

  
  

  on country roads as they have for thirteen years, to

  
  

  minister to a loving church family. On the wall of the

  
  

  tiny chapel the attendance record will now read 18

  
  

  instead of 20. Things will never be the same—but for

  
  

  this they have Jesus.

  
  

   

  
  

  * This story reminds me of the example in Job, Chapter 1 where Job lost his possessions and children yet did not sin by charging God with any wrong doing but said…

  
  

  
  
   And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”  Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.             Job 1:21-22
  

  
  

   

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