God’s extraordinary gift through tragedy

welcome to treasures in the storm. I’m Cindy schmidle er and today we’re gonna be talking about God’s extravagant gift through tragedy. And so I want you to be thinking about that. God’s an extravagant. That’s a big word. Extravagant gift in tragedy. And I’m gonna pray for us. We’re gonna go through the scriptures. I’m going to share an incredible story again. It’s God’s fingerprints in my life as he says, tell of the wonderful deeds I have done for you. He says that in the songs. So that’s what we’re gonna be doing today. So get your coffee and your bible pen and paper and come and sit down. Let me pray for us. So, Lord jesus. We thank you God. We thank you for who you are. We thank you for saving us. We thank you for creating us. We thank you that you go before us in everything. And though you promised Lord that it may not be easy, you promised that you would be there and that you be holding us and nothing would be too hard because you, it may feel too hard. But you are taking care of us and you will get us through. So father, we need you. I pray for my audience Lord that you would speak so tenderly and beautifully to them as you always do Lord and for any who are really struggling father, will you just show yourself so big to them in this episode today, Lord and I’m trusting you and they’re trusting you and we’re thanking you in advance because you promised to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine through our prayers. So we love you Lord and we thank you in jesus name. So I want to start with again one of my life versus I’d like to put on my forehead, can you put on your forehead to put it somewhere that you can keep it and bring it up often and that’s for success alone. Ian’s 5 18. We are to give thanks in all circumstances circle that word, all all circumstances, not some not the ones you want, but all circumstances for this is God’s will for you. And christ, jesus, the bible says, I think of moses is birth and exodus chapter two where his mom because of the pharaoh saying we’re gonna kill um all the first born Children met men, Children, boy Children. Uh she decided to put her son in a basket that had um tar in it and put him in the Nile to try to save his life. And because God is involved in all of that, his life is safe, we’re gonna, you’ll catch that in another episode of mine. But so uh this feels like that sometimes it may feel like that in your life and you might be saying today, God, what are you doing? Where are you? I am melting here. Matthew 79 says come come to Matthew, Matthew chapter seven verse nine these are jesus very words in red, which of you, if your son asks for bread would give him a stone or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake. And the point jesus is making here is you know how to give good gifts to your Children. How much more do I know how to give good gifts to you? So again, that’s, that’s a matter of us bowing our heads saying, Lord, I don’t see it now, but you will show me when I need to know. Well, I had been about 30 days since we buried our son Jonathan from his heart defect and God sauce all the way through. And you can watch that episode two. It’s in the queue and now we’re, we’ve been through that and now here we are in the aftermath of having lost our son, John is we’re having to move to another state because of John’s job. And it had been 30 days, just 30 days since all of this had happened. So as a world when I felt like a whirl when going on in my mind and I was just, I was on the river of God with this, all this happening, all the emotions that come from hormones of having a child and then losing a child and all of that. And we were, we were looking at homes in another state, john and I, we had a weekend and we only had a weekend to find a place to live. And so we hired a professional to help us find a house and we had an idea about where kind of where we wanted to be, We didn’t know the area and all of that. We’re just trusting that God would go before us. And now looking at these verses, I think about that verse that talks about, I have set the boundaries of where everyone is to live. So it’s not so much, we’re making this decision as God is going to go for us in this decision. So we’re looking and looking and the end of that first day was exhausting for me and we got back to the hotel and I just couldn’t wait to get my feet up because I was still, you know, fighting from having a C section and all of that. And so we get back to the hotel and back then. I don’t even know if they still have this now at hotels. You know, the, they have a little red blinking light if you have a message. Well, there had been a message on our phone in our hotel and john picked it up and he’s like, what, what is this? So he picks it up and the voice on the other hand was a um, an attorney and I had a call early in their day from a friend of mine saying Cindy, an attorney is trying to get ahold of you and you need to call him back. And I’m like, what, what could an attorney way you think? It’s never good when an attorney calls you. And so he picks up this message and the attorney on the other end says, um can you get a hold of me right away? So john calls them right back now. He’s nervous, like what happen, what’s going on? And so he calls this man and the man says on the other end of the line, he says, a baby has been born, do you want him? And we’re like, what? We haven’t pursued anything like this, What is this a joke? What is this about? And he shares with us that somebody had given um our name to him as the fact that we have lost a child recently. And they must have thought we wanted a baby. And we’re like, oh my gosh! And interestingly, because that’s how God is, it was my birthday and john set up. Well, yes, we do. We, we we believed wholeheartedly without even thinking a second thought that this was the baby that God had designed for us. So, it went through this whole craziness with the Lord. And if he would have told us in advance, we’d say no way send somebody else. But he had planned that, you know, we were going to get pregnant miracle pregnancy Only to end in death of that child, five days on this earth, that son Jonathan 30 days later to adopt our son Adam who is 30 right now crazy. That’s just the upside down Nous as the scripture talks about how the Lord does things, we, we plan things so logically and God does it so much different. And so we said yes and the protocol for that was you had to write a letter because the birth mother needs to approve who the adoptive parents are. You don’t just do it, you know, you don’t just have it done, she makes the decision, which I’m so grateful for, aren’t you? And if you’re going through that right now, maybe you’re the birth mom having to give up a child. We it was the hardest thing that we ever did to bow our heads and write a letter to a birth mom who we knew was going to be giving up that child having to give up that child, what do you say? You know john and I went around and around, what do you say to them, what that’s going to give them comfort And we prayed and prayed, Lord God, please, we can’t imagine what this mom is going through having to give up that child. And so we did with the best in us, we rewrote, rewrote, rewrote. So we felt like it was right, we wanted her to know our heart that our heart was that we were gonna love that child, that child would be ours and we were going to raise that child to know the Lord because that’s who we are. We’re going to be truthful about all of that. And so that’s what we wrote. We in great detail. We went and we talked about how difficult it must be for her having to do this. We talked about how God has plans for this and this is in his plan and he will work it out for the best. And just to bring comfort of what are the facts about the situation And those are the facts. The truth about this word. These are the facts. This is what we filter all of our life through, don’t we? And so we wrote our ladder and the adoption attorney took it along with other letters. We weren’t the only letter and she read the letters and of course she chose us and we were and that happened in a really quick amount of time. And so all of a sudden we find out from all that we had been through that we were going to have a child of our own. And so we flew home as fast as we could to gather what we needed because the baby was coming into our house and all again, all of our friends are involved in all of this. You know, we’re close, they knew about all of it. And so they they’re doing the roller coaster with us up and down. And so they were so helpful, they went and picked up everything we needed. We got the room ready everything and just a quick second really and then john and I went down to pick adam up and with the adoption attorney at the hospital, we went to the hospital and again everything had to be done legally. The however they do all of that we were just on for the ride and I remember getting to the hospital thinking this is so surreal and we got to the hospital and we went they put us in a room and in this room remember it again like it was yesterday, there was nothing in it, there was a rocking chair and another chair and a table with a tv and on the T. V. Was an old fashioned um cassette recorder and a woman came in. A nurse came in and she put a tape into the cassette turned the tv on and the tape was how to give a baby about and john and I looked at each other like of all the things going on, we’re going to be watching how to give a baby a bath. That you talk about craziness. And then before you knew it they wield our son adam into the room and he was just gorgeous. He had this huge head of hair and he was just beautiful we’re like oh my gosh! And I brought this little outfit for him to wear home. It was just it’s the greatest gift I will ever receive in my life and I remember telling God this God this this gift, this today, my birthday. This is the greatest thing you will ever give me. There is nothing that will ever compare to this. And and and that’s funny too because the Lord has a way of saying, oh honey, I’m not even, I haven’t even begun to give you good gifts yet. You just wait to see what I have for you. And that’s how much he loves us, isn’t it? And so I’m going back thinking about um all those scriptures that we keep reading about. You know, who would have thought that my story would go this way, Who who in the wildest dreams they should make a movie of this would have thought that their life was going to go like this. But God had decided and he knew he chose me. It says in Galatians 1 15, he chose me for this. He chose my husband john for this. But for the foundations of the world ever begun. He chose our son Adam to live with us. And I would tell Adam all the time. You know, Honey Psalm 1 39 says that you’re all your days are all written in God’s book. And And he goes, I tell him all the time and he would laugh at me by the time he was 10, he’s like mom, I’ve heard that I understand I know that I already know all this. That’s what he tells me. I already know all this, which I love that about him and I want to talk to the audience a minute, you know, thinking about both ends of that, about about the excitement about getting the baby, the horrific nous about having to give the baby up. Just like moses, Mom had to make that very difficult decision. That was in God’s will, that was in his sovereignty was the plan before the foundations of the world were begun, The bible says that plan was already in motion, just like moses. And remember moses going into live with pharaoh, which we’ll talk about this at in another episode, that was all part of the plan of the bigger picture of those things that God has called us to in advance those works that he has prepared for us, that he does through us, we don’t do it, he does it. And so it’s good to remind ourselves about that. Um so I think I just want to end this episode with that people would understand that whatever tragedy may feel like tragedy uh that you’re going through or something has not happened, that you hope would happen, remind yourself that God is in the business of giving us our heart’s desire, but they’re inside of what he knows is best for us, not what we think is best and and to remind yourself not to get ahead of what he is wanting for you because when we go ahead, we make much heartache for us and God would never intend for that. But we do it for ourselves. We start making I’m going to do it this way and and I’ll help God like proverbs 35 and six says, you know, we’re to trust in the Lord with all of our heart. All of it again, circle that all proverbs 35 and six and lean not on our own reasoning, our own understanding any of that. We we need to throw that out, We need to acknowledge him and he is going to make the path straight. I love the end of this. It goes on to say do not be wise in your own eyes. See we think we got it all figured out, oh this is gonna be the way just like they did in the scriptures, right? And then much heartache comes to people right? Like Sarah having Hager you know um get get her, so her husband gets pregnant. I mean her wife gets Hagar gets pregnant with with um Abraham’s child because she thought that would be a good plan. Well that’s not a good plan. We know how that ends and we know the heartache that it caused. So let’s get into what God wants back up three steps. I always say when I’m starting to get frustrated, need to go back three steps and I need to put God in the center of what’s going on and then look at the plan, how the plan is folding out and trust him for the end of that. And so we have a wonderful son Adam who is now 30. It’s been an incredible joy every I mean, he’s the delight of our life. And so I want you to know that if you just stay on, stay on track with God, open his word, let him speak to you. He’ll show you the right path there. And so anybody who’s struggling today, Anyone out there who thinks that God has left them or this is too hard. I just want to speak into your life and say, trust him, let me pray for you and get around people who know God that can help hold your arms and legs up as you walk through this difficult situation. So I’m gonna pray for us. So Lord, we we’re just in we don’t have words to talk about what it’s like to walk with you and talk with you the upside down nous of of how you bring things. It’s never A to Z. Lord. It’s always F and B and G. It’s all different. It’s all bundled up, but it’s the best for us. Lord. And so I pray father that you would get into the thoughts and minds of my listeners who are struggling today and you would speak life on them that you’ve come God to give us abundant life. The thief is the one who kills steals and destroys. Please Lord bring that abundant life to them. Bring help to them. Bring them hope today. God only you can do it. They they have no ability. You got to do it for them, Will you do it for them? Lord Oh how you love them And we trust you for this. Lord help us with any unbelief in jesus name. Thank you for watching today. Hello. My name is Cindy schmidle er and I have something very special that I want to share with you today. This is a book that I’ve written called tragedy turned upside down. This is a book full of hope and help If you need some strength today, I call it God vitamins if you need some real uh inoculation of the Lord and faith and belief in your life. This book is for you. My readers have said they devour it. They sit in one sitting to finish it. They have laughed, they have cried. Most of them have taken notes on it because there’s so many good foundational truths in it that you will want to write down and keep for the storms of your life mostly. You’re gonna take this book and you’ll want to share it with others that are struggling to. So at your earliest convenience, I’d say pick it up, read it, you will be blessed, blessed blessed when you read this and share it with those that are struggling right now. Maybe even if they’re not struggling? Somebody who needs to know? Maybe they don’t have faith and you want them to have faith. You want them to know who jesus is. This book is for you, those words that you you just can’t bring to say to a friend or relative. This book is full of all the things that you had hoped to say to them. So pick it up at your earliest convenience.