In Mysterious Ways

   Everything was gone. Just gone. I walked into my room in horror, seeing everything on the floor and finding things broken. My jewelry box was empty and my guitar missing. "Why is this happening, Lord?" I kept screaming, "why?" They had taken things of sentimental value and things that were irreplaceable. Not only that but they had taken our spare keys, jeopardizing our safety and making things utterly worse.

   A few days ago, my mom picked me up from school and asked me if I was hungry or if I wanted to go home and stop at Panera on the way to church later. "Let's go to Panera right now!" I said, so we went and had our lovely lunch/dinner and went on our way back home. As we walked up to the house, my mom put her key into the lock of the security door and when it didn't make the clicking sound we had become accustomed to, we realized the door was unlocked. My heart sunk when the second door was also unlocked. "We've been broken into," my mom said. I went numb. As we discovered more and more missing, I felt so angry. My tears of sadness and frustration, turned to sobs of anger and a longing for revenge. It took me a little while to realize something; I was doing exactly the opposite of what the Lord asks us to do on a daily basis. Only one verse kept coming to mind, Romans 12:19 "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'it is mine to avenge; I will re-pay,' says the Lord." Even though all I wanted to do was find the little turds who robbed me and make them feel as badly as I felt, I had to understand that's not my job. Being angry wasn't going to hurt the burglars, it was only going to hurt myself.

   The next wave of pain was asking God why He would do this to me, why did He do this to me? Again, it was brought to my attention that God did not do this to me. He did not just decide, "Hey, today I'm going to send thieves into Lauren's house." No, He didn't do that. However he did allow it to happen. You know how after something tragic happens to you and everyone just keeps telling you, "don't worry, everything happens for a reason!" and all you want to do is punch them and say,"yep, there's definitely a reason I just knocked your teeth out." Well, they're not wrong, they may be a little bit annoying, but not wrong. You see, God lets everything happen for a reason, even though it doesn't always seem like it. Another verse was pointed out to me. Deuteronomy 29:29 "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law." God has revealed so much about Himself to us on a daily basis, but sometimes, there are things that He feels we would be better off not knowing. This is one of those times that the Lord will most likely keep a secret but that's ok, because at least He is apart of it and working in us. And even though He hasn't revealed everything to us, He has revealed enough to us so that we can find comfort and peace in Him. 

   I also can't help but feeling like the Lord and His divine intervention had saved my mother, brother, father and I from making sure that none of us were home. It was my brothers day off of work but he decided to go out for the afternoon, my father was at work, and my mother and I were at Panera. If any of us had come home while they were still in the house, which I'm sure they were when my mom picked me up from school and asked if I wanted to go home or to Panera, they would've most likely acted rashly, and one of my family members might not be here today. We all blame ourselves but I feel like the Lord keeps telling me that this happened for a reason and He needed to protect us in different ways. The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways.

   Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." I found this verse way to close to home for me. God's not saying that we shouldn't  have material possessions or that we shouldn't feel sad when those things are taken from us. No, He is saying that the things of this Earth won't matter once we are in heaven. He's saying that we should focus more on Him and how we can further His kingdom, rather than how much we can own on this Earth. Yes, it hurts when precious items of this Earth are taken from us, but we have to remember that we couldn't take it with us anyway. So we can mourn the loss but we must move on and ask the Lord, "What's next in your plan for me? What do you need me to do for you and your Kingdom?" We must remember what's important, and that's our faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and bringing others to His saving grace. This is hopefully as close as we will get to Hell and if we can get through this with our faith intact, we can spend eternity with our Savior in heaven.