In Chapter 5 of One Thousand Gifts, author Ann Voskamp recalls the strong faith of her brother-in-law John at the funerals of his two infant sons, who had died 18 months apart of a genetic lung disease, calling such affirmation of God’s goodness “the unwavering faith of fissured hearts”. Indeed, the author states, that kind of faith “puts real vertebrae” into verses like Ephesians 5:20- “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Adversity, however, tends to skew that perspective. We question why God has singled us out for such devastation. G. K. Chesterton (from the Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton: Collected Poetry, Part 1), offers an alternative view:
“Here dies another day
During which I have had eyes, ears, hands
And the great world round me;
And with tomorrow begins another.
Why am I allowed two?”
Ann wonders why no one asks that why question. Why aren’t we grateful for “a whole string of grace days”? Ann concludes that we need to acknowledge who the debtor is in our relationship with God:
“When I realized that is is not God who is in my debt but I who am in His great debt, then doesn’t all become gift?”
