After two weeks visiting three grandbabies in England and several days with two more in Michigan, I’m up-to-date with our five youthful relatives. Cameras are clicking non-stop, but sadly their Grandpa Nate is only in a few of the photos, and he’ll never appear with three of these children. As a matter of fact, none of the five will ever know him.

Skylar                                                Nicholas                                  I’ve worked hard not to camp there in my thinking. Instead I’m trying to focus on God’s spectacular timing in sending three new lives just as we’re painfully adjusting to losing one.

All of us pray for good health, protection and safety. When circumstances dish out the opposite, disease, injury or danger, it means God has overruled our prayer requests for important reasons that will ultimately be to our benefit.

As an example, take the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the beginning it was all about anger and revenge. “What kind of a God would let this happen?”

But a month later, the entire country had recognized God as a force for good in America and had begun appreciating people in new ways. Many had started going back to church. Prayer meetings abounded. And those who’d lost loved ones in the attacks vowed not to wait before telling family members of their gratitude and love. Yes, there were losses, but there were also gains.

Henry Blackaby, an author and teacher I admire, says when we pray about specific situations, we ought to carefully observe what happens next. God will show himself in the circumstances that follow.

I remember years ago when a missionary friend who was based in the States (but a citizen of another country) was trapped in governmental red tape. Trying to renew her visa for traveling in and out of America, she’d been left in a third world country when her team had headed home. Unable to get back into the US, she sent out a call for prayer.

I began praying but wondered if I could help in another way also. I asked God what to do. Within days I “happened to hear” a broadcast on the power of fasting and decided God wanted me to fast for my friend.

At the end of a week’s fast, my friend actually called to say she’d not only received the paper work she needed but had secured permission to exit and enter the States indefinitely for ten years, something she’d never expected.

Was it an accident I was influenced to fast? I believe it was God’s response to my question of what I should do. When we seek him, he shows himself.

So here I am today, missing Nate and praying daily about my family’s different future without him. What should we think, Lord? What should we do?

His answer has come with three babies born in the first five months after Nate’s death. God has shown us we’re not to dwell on our losses but to focus forward and give thanks for where we are today.

We will never forget Nate. We’ll always love him dearly and delight in recounting our endless memories of him. And although his five grandchildren will never know him personally, we aren’t to spend time bemoaning that. Instead we’re to rejoice in their lives and move into the future with gladness and gratitude for the way things are… today.

“This is the day the Lord as made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)