Thanksgiving GRACE
On a hot summer night in July 2010, my daughter and I were frantically trying to add minutes to a phone belonging to my son who was missing following a car accident. It was his old phone and the only one he would remember the number to, so we were just sure it was him trying to call. We drove to Paducah and ran into the store to purchase the minutes. My hands were shaking so bad that my daughter had to take the phone away from me to complete our task at hand. Once the minutes had been applied to the phone, I eagerly awaited to hear his voice calling out to us for help. None came, there were just frantic calls from me trying to get him to call me. Dread began to overtake me so, my daughter had to take my keys and started to drive home. I was so distraught. The radio was playing and just as we entered the entrance ramp to the interstate, the chorus of a song called “Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone” began to be heard. The volume increased as if we had turned up the radio, which we had not. My sons voice came onto the radio singing the words: my chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God, my Savior, has ransomed me.
I immediately began crying uncontrollably and informed my daughter, “Sissy, bubby is dead”! She tried to calm me by reminding me of that we had not found his body and we just needed to wait until that time. I exclaimed, “he’s gone, he just told me”. Who would ever believe that I would hear his voice instead of the artist who sings the song? God’s Grace gives us the answers we need when we need them. He is truly amazing.
We are promised in his word that leaving this life leads to a better life if we belong to Christ. My son had accepted Jesus as his personal Savior so I could lean on this Amazing Grace promise and have so much to be thankful for because of what Christ did on the cross. Read with me; I Thessalonians 4:13-18 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
I hope that these words of Thanksgiving to a Magnificent Loving God, who one day chose me to bless with this trial, can be of comfort to you. While it was one of the hardest and worst times of my life, through God’s Amazing Grace of comfort, I can now say, “Thank you, Lord for taking my son home to be with you!” “I know I will see him again!”
May God receive All Praise and All Glory!
Sherry Cozart
I immediately began crying uncontrollably and informed my daughter, “Sissy, bubby is dead”! She tried to calm me by reminding me of that we had not found his body and we just needed to wait until that time. I exclaimed, “he’s gone, he just told me”. Who would ever believe that I would hear his voice instead of the artist who sings the song? God’s Grace gives us the answers we need when we need them. He is truly amazing.
We are promised in his word that leaving this life leads to a better life if we belong to Christ. My son had accepted Jesus as his personal Savior so I could lean on this Amazing Grace promise and have so much to be thankful for because of what Christ did on the cross. Read with me; I Thessalonians 4:13-18 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
I hope that these words of Thanksgiving to a Magnificent Loving God, who one day chose me to bless with this trial, can be of comfort to you. While it was one of the hardest and worst times of my life, through God’s Amazing Grace of comfort, I can now say, “Thank you, Lord for taking my son home to be with you!” “I know I will see him again!”
May God receive All Praise and All Glory!
Sherry Cozart