My dear friend, Marie Koth, joins us as guest writer this week. She shares her story of how God brought her and her husband Chris through an amazing year of adversity and miracle after miracle. Read and be blessed!

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Have you ever had a year where you’d like to push the reset button?  2018 was like that for me and my husband.  January through March hummed along easily.  In April, two days after our 40^th anniversary, we learned that my husband’s youngest brother had committed suicide.  We went off to Virginia to be with his other brothers and sisters and comfort each other. 

Five weeks later, in May, the brother five years younger than my husband died instantly of a massive heart attack.  This brother, a strong Christian, had been close to all the family.  The pain of losing two in two months was awful, but God carried us through.

We came back from the second trip to Virginia for this brother’s memorial service, and both promptly came down with a bad cold virus.  We were planning on taking some artificial trees to our church for Vacation Bible School Sunday afternoon, but because we were feeling so badly, we decided to take them on Saturday.  While we were at the church, we stopped by to say “hi” to our choir director who was there preparing for Sunday.  A storm with high winds was starting as we left for home.

When we got home, we discovered that a 110-foot oak tree had fallen all the way across one wing of our L-shaped house.  We went in to find the rain pouring into our house and a huge branch protruding into the office right over my husband’s chair where he had been working at the computer.  If we had not stopped to talk to our choir director, my husband would have been back in his chair when the branch came in.  A few minutes after we came down our street, a neighbor called to tell us a tree had fallen across the top of the street right after we came through.  Proverbs 2:8, “for He guards the course of the just and protects the way of His faithful ones,” had never been so real to us.  And it continued.  God provided for us and protected us over and over again.

I was able to contact a tree service just before they were leaving for the day.  They started removing the tree from our house at 5:00 pm and finished putting tarps over the huge hole in our roof at 10:30 that night.  A week later, a tornado came through our street, and another large oak missed our bedroom by 10 inches.  The storms continued almost daily for weeks.  We were able to live in three rooms while our house was being cleaned up and repaired.  For four weeks all we had between us and the sky in parts of the house was tarp. 

Each time we looked at the radar and saw a red mass heading for us we would pray for the Lord to dissipate it, and, by the time it reached us, it had turned green on the map, one time splitting a large red mass in two.  Only green was over us again!

God definitely let us know loud and clear, “I’m here!”

 I remembered the words Moses told Joshua in Deuteronomy 31:8: “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

We told every person that worked on our house and everyone we dealt with over the eight months it took to repair our house of God’s goodness and protection and provision.  God had showed out and He received the glory!  Tough construction workers were amazed that we lived in our house with all the storms with nothing but tarp for a roof.  We knew that God still had work for us to do for His kingdom because He had rescued us twice in one day.  There was no need to fear!

Psalm 5:11   But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy.  Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You.

If we have been reconciled to God through believing that we are sinners, that Jesus cancelled our sin debt when he died on the cross, and turning from our sin, accepting this gift Jesus has given us, then we are in the care of God on this earth and for all eternity.  We can rejoice, even in the tough times, because our heavenly Father, Daddy, loves us and will be right there with us no matter what life throws at us.  When we give it all to Him and trust Him God gives us His peace that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:6-7).

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Dear Lord: Thank You for carrying us through the storms of this life, and for letting us know that You are always there for us no matter what we face. Thank You for bringing Marie and Chris safely through, and for giving them this remarkable story that reminds us of Your goodness and provision. All things are possible with You. Thank You for Your faithfulness. Amen

Thank you for reading and sharing our blogpost today. May God bless you and your family richly and carry you safely through the storms of this life, gently reminding us always that He is there.