This is not our Home

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.--John 16:33

These past few months have been some of several victories for Christ, but it's been hard to see His love sometimes through some of the stories I've heard or experienced.

-It started with Sam Dowlen's nearly parlyzing injury in August.
-Then I found out my dad's cousin (my second cousin?) Sandra has ovarian cancer.
-A girl from my pledge class finds out that she has thyroid cancer soon after hearing about Sandra's news.
-One of Katy Fisher's friends from high school passes away after some complications during her heart surgery.
-Another girl from my sorority found her fiance dead in her room last week.
-Today, Kasey Gabhart told me the news of her 5 year old niece that was just diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphatic leukemia.

I'm not sharing all of this as a source for pity, but if anything as an encouragement to pray. I have been reminded over and over again these past few months that where we are now is not our home and this heartbreak is not meant to be our's forever. Some days, I find myself so much more grateful for that fact and can only turn my eyes towards Heaven as I wait and see what God has in store for the rest of my journey in my temporary home. I know that He is a Father that loves so much more deeply than we can understand and that He is just and righteous in everything He does, through His love for us.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.--2 Corinthians 4:16-18