Different paths for different boys

I requested prayer for Brandon Cook in my last post. Yesterday morning, the Lord ended his suffering and brought him home. Brandon was a young Christian man in college who lived his faith. Ever since middle school, he made frequent trips to the Honduras mission field and was involved with Heart4Children. (In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Brandon's memory.) Thankfully, his family has the biblical kind of hope—confident expectation—that they will be reunited with him in glory. I can't begin to imagine the pain, though, of being separated from your child.

I'm reminded of how our children and grandchildren are only on loan to us. They belong to God, who created them and who loves them more than we do. I'm so grateful that He chose our family to place Jackson in. And I'm grateful that Jackson is doing so well. Angy, Darrell, Christian, and Sara have been really sick for almost two weeks, but Jackson has miraculously remained healthy. I thank God for sparing him that, especially with all he's been through recently.

We had the most wonderful Christmas. Jackson is really hard to buy for, though. I got him the six lotions he kept asking for during his last hospital stay, and Angy suggested getting him a special contour pillow for CPAP (sleep mask) users. Jackson had always slept on his side or stomach, but since he's been wearing the mask, he's been forced to sleep on his back.

When Jackson got enough of the wrapping paper off to see what it was, he tossed the pillow aside. (What kid would be thrilled with a medical aid for a Christmas present?) But he ended up liking it.

Before Jackson got the mask, he never got a good night's sleep. Since he's been wearing it, he goes to bed at 10:00, wakes up at 6:00 and calls out for Angy to remove his mask, then sleeps without it until 7:00. Jackson's first night with the pillow, he slept solid until 9:30 in the morning! The next night, he pointed at the pillow, smiled, and said, "Pillow." Oh, that warmed my heart.

Jackson is obsessed with keys and locks, so for another Christmas present, Robert made him a little board with locks and latches on it and a handle for carrying. This present from Poppy was a hit. You should have seen Jackson's face light up when he saw his very own set of keys. Maybe, just maybe, he'll leave ours alone now.

But back to Brandon's family . . . thinking about how they're temporarily separated from him, I'm reminded of how Jesus was temporarily separated from God the Father—physically at His birth and judicially on the cross. He was never separated from God in essence, though. When Jesus added humanity to His deity, He became man, what He had never been before, without ever ceasing to be God, what He has always been from eternity past.

The pain Jesus endured is beyond comprehension, not only the physical torture, but the spiritual agony. The holy Son of God became sin, not a sinner, but the substitute for our sins to receive the full wrath of God's righteous judgment against sin. Only the God man could have withstood it. In His humanity, Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46)

My pastor, David Dunn, said Jesus made that statement so we wouldn't have to—that on the cross, God forsook Jesus temporarily so He wouldn't have to forsake us forever.

Hallelujah! Believers in Christ will never know the pain of separation from God's love.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things presents, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38–39)