Voice - 2

Blessed 

I’m a people pleaser, so when I learned that our knee-jerk response to reporters after Candace’s body was found—that we were going to forgive the person who had murdered our daughter—had sparked a national discussion, I was devastated.

Apparently, nearly 80 percent of Canadians seemed to think we were heartless, that we didn’t care, that we were somehow letting a murderer off the hook.

I was shaken to the core. I cried for days.

Of course, I was grieving for Candace. I was grieving for our family. But I was also grieving for everyone caught in the pain and confusion of that moment.

I sank very low.

Then I stumbled across a verse:
"If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you."

And as I read it, I felt the Voice whisper it directly into my heart.

I thought, Well, we have just been insulted by much of Canada because we chose the way of Christ. Perhaps that means we are now in line for a whole lot of blessings.

And we were.

Apparently, the 20 percent who understood us loved us deeply. They surrounded us with such kindness, compassion, and encouragement that we can still feel the warmth of it today.

That Voice is still with me.

It is the Voice that has continued to bless me through the years.

It brought robins to my window here in Winkler.

It brought deer to stand outside our living-room window in Grimsby when Cliff was dying.

It even brought a chickadee that landed gently on my hand.

The Voice is with me.

The Voice stays with me.
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And I love the Voice.