Resting in a Sovereign and Loving God

I listened today to a very fine sermon on the sovereignty of God, and I was reminded how dear this truth is to me—that we can trust a God who is both sovereign and loving.  He writes a long story, our God does—a story beginning in Genesis and ending when Christ returns—a story of redemption of His beloved children, a story that unfolds across time and oceans and generations.

Alice

 My Grandma Roos—Alice Hamilton Roos—was born in the mountains of rural Tennessee in 1895.  Think of that—over 100 years ago!  Grandma’s parents were both devout and enthusiastic believers and raised their eight children to love Jesus.  “Pa and Ma told us Bible stories and taught us to love God and to pray,” she later typed in her journals.  “I began reading God’s Word as soon as I could read, and I grew up believing it.”

Little Alice became a Christian as a child, and part of her upbringing in her little church in the mountains of Tennessee included learning of missionaries serving around the world. Like many believers of her day, she was inspired and challenged by the lives—and in so many cases, the martyrdom—of the missionaries serving in China during the Boxer Rebellion and ensuing political upheavals at the turn of the century.  Lizzie Atwater, John and Betty Stamm, Hudson and Maria Taylor, Charlotte Moon, and so many others—these men and women who were willing to leave the comforts and safety of home and family to serve the Lord in far-away China—these were my grandma’s heroes, and she felt the Lord calling her to full-time Christian work in China.

But Alice Hamilton had very poor eyesight.  She had worn glasses for much of her life to correct her vision, and she suffered eyestrain repeatedly.  As a result of her eye troubles, the China Inland Mission Board rejected her application for mission work.  She was told that no one would ever send her overseas as a missionary because of her eyes.

And yet, Grandma felt burdened for the people of China for the rest of her life, praying daily for their salvation—that the Lord would “open China for the Gospel,” –and that missionaries would be called to go to that vast land.  

I was often in Grandma’s house when I was growing up, and she delighted to open her big National Geographic World Atlas to the map of China and point to the different regions of the vast country, naming the dialects used in each, telling me what the people wore and what they ate.  She knew many of the missionary’s names, and, in so many cases, the hardships they endured for the sake of the Gospel.

Grandma Roos never traveled to China, but she kept in contact with many of the missionaries through the course of her life, writing to them regularly and reading over and over again the letters they sent.  We were amazed to realize, in her last years, that the burden of Grandma’s heart for the people of China—her letters from missionary friends, the pictures of the land and the children’s faces, the stories of desperate need of the Gospel—all these had gradually become part of not only her heart, but also her “memories.”  So deeply had she loved China for Christ’s sake, that in the gathering autumn of Alice Hamilton Roos’ life, she talked of HER time in China.  “When I was a missionary in China,” she would begin, and our hearts ached for this dear saint, this precious believer, who wanted above all else that ‘All the ends of the earth would see the salvation of our God.’ (Ps. 98:3)

Rachel

Rachel is a sweet young woman I recently came to know at a women’s Bible Study.  Shy and soft-spoken, she rarely enters the lively conversation around our table.  Last week I had the opportunity to sit next to her and to learn more of her background.

“I was born and raised in Shanghai,” she told me, in answer to my question, and I leaned closer to hear her quiet voice.  “I came to the United States after I finished college, thinking I needed to pursue a further degree in the States.  I thought I was coming for education, but it turns out that Jesus brought me here to meet Him!”

Soon after her arrival in the States, Rachel began attending a Chinese Presbyterian church, simply to meet other Chinese women and to be somewhere where she could hear and speak her own language.  “Then I met Jesus,” she went on, “and everything changed.  THIS is why the Lord brought me to America!”

I told her about my Grandma, and about her life-long prayers for the people of China.  Her face lit up.  “My parents came from China to visit me here, and I told them about Jesus,” she said, “and they both became Christians!”  (By now we are both in tears at the goodness of the Lord.)  

“And THEN, Miss Kathy,” she went on, “Then they went back to China and began searching for a church where they could learn more and grow…and the church they found was over one hundred years old!  Maybe your grandma prayed for that church—for my parents—for ME!”

Our Sovereign Lord   

A dear friend recently told me that she firmly believes that the Lord hears all of our prayers, and saves each one, to be answered in His timing and in His design. Did Grandma know Rachel or her parents?  Of course not. Did she have any inkling of how the Lord would bring about the salvation of this shy little woman?  She did not.  Was Alice Hamilton Roos the only one who prayed that the Gospel would reach China and change hearts for Him?  Of course not.  But she certainly did pray, and the Lord certainly has answered those prayers, in ways more numerous than we can ever know.  

I cannot claim to understand the sovereignty of God, nor fully grasp the depth and height and breadth of His love for His children.  But I rest on both. I delight in both. God is sovereign.  God is loving.  And I am thankful!

(Post Script: And for those who might be wondering about how Grandma’s story turned out: although she never got to serve the Lord in the vast land of China, the Lord had other—and wonderful—plans for her.  While a student at Biola University, Grandma met a ministerial student, John Roos.  Grandpa and Grandma married in 1923 and went on to pastor ten different churches throughout the Midwest—spreading the Gospel, not in China, but in this vast land.  All a part of God’s long story of salvation!  How blessed we are to serve a sovereign and loving God!