October, 2011 Down Syndrome Awareness Month... Day 22

Sometimes Miracles Hide... 

I'm not sure when I first heard this song... Sometimes Miracles Hide. I think someone that Jon works with bought the CD for us soon after Josh was born. It was accompanied by a little picture book filled with a beautiful girl with Down Syndrome. Bruce Carroll wrote the song, apparently in honor of friends of his who had a baby with a little something extra.

I am still moved to tears each time I hear it. The chorus of the song goes like this...

Sometimes miracles hide
God will wrap some blessings in disguise
You may have to wait a lifetime
To see the reasons with your eyes
'Cause sometimes miracles hide

How true is that?

How many times has something happened to you and you thought... oh wow, how will I ever make it thru this? Will life ever be normal again? What IS normal? Why is life so hard?

Or, maybe you're like me and you have conversations with God... "ya know God, obviously You have more confidence in me than I have in myself because I sure don't FEEL capable

of handling this ____________(insert your own hardship because there are so many... and no one person's hardship is easier than another person's hardship)"

And then, life just moves right along and you DO make it thru.

Sometimes you can even look back and recognize that you are a better person because of a traumatic experience. And sometimes... just sometimes... you can even thank God for bringing that hardship into your life because it has brought you closer to Him, or brought someone you love closer to Him.

One of my very favorite scriptures is Isaiah 55:8 & 9

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."

In this verse, God is telling me to trust Him. His ways are different than mine. He knows best. I know what I want... He knows what I need. His ways are so much better than mine... even IF they are harder... they are higher, better.

Another of my favorites is Isaiah 42:16

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them."

Here, God is telling me that it's going to be okay. He knows I have never walked this way before. He knows I don't know what I'm doing. He knows I'm going to trip, fall down, mess up. But, He will guide me, help me and not leave me.

What comfort.

I don't find myself questioning WHY Josh was born with Down Syndrome as much as I used to but, truth be told, it still crosses my mind on occasion. My mind wanders there when I'm blindsided with how far behind he is when compared to his peers, or when we're faced with a medical situation that most 'normal' kids don't have to endure... 

Then I remember these verses... and am reminded... sometimes miracles hide.