{"id":2996,"date":"2018-01-19T17:56:13","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T17:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=2996"},"modified":"2017-06-20T18:24:21","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T18:24:21","slug":"even-if-its-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=2996","title":{"rendered":"Even If It’s Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal: \u00a0Howdy!<\/p>\n

Me: \u00a0Nice to meet your friends! \u00a0There even shorter than you!<\/p>\n

Prodigal: \u00a0Yep, they have to stand up straight to look a rattler in the eye!<\/p>\n

Me: \u00a0Well, at least I am taller than that! (Yes, Aaron, I am taller than that)<\/p>\n

Prodigal: \u00a0Do you have a story.<\/p>\n

Me: \u00a0Yes, I do.<\/p>\n

He was a strong man facing an enemy beyond his strength. \u00a0His young wife had become gravely ill, then suddenly passed away, leaving the big man alone with a wide-eyed, flaxen-haired girl, not quite five years old.<\/p>\n

The service in the village chapel was simple, and heave with grief. \u00a0After the burial at the small cemetery, the man’s neighbors gathered around him. “Please, bring your little girl and stay with us for several days,” someone said. \u00a0“You shouldn’t go back home just yet.”<\/p>\n

Broken-hearted through he was, the man answered, “Thank you, friends, for the kind offer. \u00a0But we need to go back home–where she was. \u00a0My baby and I must face this.”<\/p>\n

So they returned, the big man and his little girl, to what now seemed an empty, lifeless house. \u00a0The man brought his daughter’s little bed into his room, so they could face the first dark night together.<\/p>\n

As the minutes slipped by that night, the young girl was having a dreadful time trying to sleep…and so was her father. \u00a0What could pierce a man’s heart deeper than a child sobbing for a mother who would never come back?<\/p>\n

Long into the night the little one continued to weep. \u00a0The big man reached down into her bed and tried to comfort her has best he could. \u00a0After a while, the little girl managed to stop crying–but only out of sorrow for her father. \u00a0Thinking his daughter was asleep, the father looked up and said brokenly, “I trust You, Father, but…it’s as dark as midnight!”<\/p>\n

Hearing her dad’s prayer, the little girl began to cry again.<\/p>\n

“I thought you were asleep, baby,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Papa, I did try. \u00a0I was sorry for you. \u00a0I did try. \u00a0But-I couldn’t go to sleep. \u00a0Papa, did you ever know it could be so dark? \u00a0Why Papa? I can’t even see you, it’s so dark.” \u00a0Then, through her tears, the little girl whispered, “But you love me even if it’s dark–don’t you, Papa?<\/p>\n

For an answer, the big man reached across with his massive hands, lifted his little girl out of her bed, brought her over onto his chest, and held her, until at last she fell asleep.<\/p>\n

When she was finally quiet, he began to pray. \u00a0He took his little daughter’s cry to him and passed it up to God.<\/p>\n

“Father, it’s dark as midnight. \u00a0I can’t see You at all. \u00a0But You love me, even when it’s dark and I can’t see, don’t You?”<\/p>\n

From the blackest of hours, the Lord touched him with a new strength, enabling him to carry on. \u00a0He knew that God went on loving him, even in the dark.<\/p>\n

Ron Mehl<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John 3:17<\/p>\n

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jennifer Van Allen<\/p>\n

www.theprodigalpig.com<\/p>\n

www.faithincounseling.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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