Under the Dome of God’s Sovereignty
“Underneath are the everlasting arms.”
Deuteronomy 32:27 (NIV)
Last week I had the privilege of being interviewed by Jill Sullivan, Executive Director of While We’re Waiting, a national ministry that provides grief support groups and retreats around the country for parents who have lost children. After reading my recent Ordained or Allowed? article regarding God’s sovereignty, Sullivan reached out with a podcast interview request.
Prior to recording, Sullivan sent me a list of potential questions. Those questions included telling a little bit about James Bruce’s life and death; discussing both the joys and challenges that come with raising a special needs child; and giving some insight on a special needs parent’s greatest fear and uncertainty: “What happens to my child after I’m gone?”
I’ve considered and written often about those questions over the last twenty years. You can find some of that work here, here, and here. Sullivan also asked me to describe the “Donna before” James Bruce’s death and the “Donna after” his death. Grief always changes us, but the one thing of which I am absolutely certain, is that the eternal truths that held, sustained, and comforted me during our 38-year Chronic Sorrow special needs parenting journey with James Bruce are the same truths that continue to comfort me now in our grief. Those eternal truths include:
God is sovereign (Daniel 4:17)
God is able (Daniel 3:17)
God is God (Exodus 46:10)
God is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9)
God’s sovereignty speaks to God’s reign and rule over everything in his creation. Dr. Derek Thomas writes, “Things happen because God orders them to happen, orders them to happen before they happen, and orders them to happen in the way that they happen. This is a statement of God’s complete sovereignty… God’s sovereignty is a matter for praise and worship. Without it, we are doomed to endless uncertainty and hopelessness. Underneath this dome, there is tranquility.”
For the first five years of James Bruce’s life and dozens of times thereafter, I resisted, questioned, and resented God’s sovereignty. Special needs parenting is very challenging and all the original hopes and dreams I had for my son died with each new diagnosis. Looking back, however, I can clearly see how God used James Bruce’s life, death, and our suffering for my good and for His glory. James Bruce changed many things, but the biggest thing God changed was ME. Our family was- and is- truly under the dome of God’s sovereignty and that brings great peace and comfort.
Dr. Burk Parsons writing in this month’s Table Talk magazine says:
“God works to conform us to His Son. We can be certain God is teaching us to trust him more completely, love him more fervently, depend on him more fully. When he does this it deepens our confidence, fortifies our convictions about him, and leads to greater certainty in a world filled with uncertainty, fears, and anxieties. Therefore, we Christians are a bold and confident people with unchanging convictions and certainty about who we are, who God is, and what we believe. The unbelieving world revels in uncertainty.”
Ours is an age of increasing anxiety and hopelessness. Last Friday night while attending a high school football game, God gave me a lesson on what it looks like to rest in God’s sovereignty. Both high school bands played loudly as fans from both sides cheered and yelled. The game was close, the lead changed several times, and the noise was deafening. Five-month-old Birdie James, our youngest granddaughter, rested and slept peacefully in my arms, oblivious to everything that was happening around her. After the game, Birdie James found herself snuggled safely in her father’s arms.
As Christians we have a sovereign God who reigns and rules and is never surprised by our suffering or our circumstances. We live safely under the dome of God’s sovereignty. All of our suffering is first filtered through our good, good Father’s hands and we are held in his everlasting arms. God is God; He is able; He is faithful. There are no gaps in his faithfulness. Those truths bring us great confidence, security, peace, and hope in an increasingly anxious and hopeless age.
“Our God is in the heavens; he does all he pleases. And all he pleases is for our good.” (Jen Wilkin)