Why Papa, you have Mama and Mead
left. By J.R. Miller God himself has
said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you, Hebrews
13 5. This truth ought to bring unspeakable
comfort to God's children who are called to suffer earthly
losses. If they have God left to them,
no other loss is irreparable. A wealthy man came home one evening
with a heavy heart and said that he had lost everything. Bankruptcy
had overtaken him. We are utterly beggared, he said. All is gone. There is nothing
left. We must leave our home and beg
for tomorrow's bread. His little five-year-old daughter
crept up on his knee, and looking earnestly into his despairing
face, said, Why, papa, you have mamma and me left? Just so, what
are temperable and worldly losses of the sorest kind, while God
remains? Yes, what is the loss of money,
houses, costly furniture, and other possessions while God's
love remains? There is surely enough in Him
to compensate a thousand times for every earthly loss. Our lives
may be stripped bare, home, friends, riches, comforts gone, every
sweet voice of love, every note of joy silenced, and we may be
driven out from brightness, tenderness, and shelter into the cold ways
of sorrow. Yet, if we have God Himself left,
ought not this to suffice? Is he not in himself infinitely
more than all his gifts? If we have him, can we really
need anything else? The Lord is my shepherd. I have
everything I need. Psalm 23, 1.