A woman lay dying in the hospital half a world away from us. Her sister was travelling furiously to her bedside –a 2-day journey– to say goodbye. We prayed that the woman would be healed or failing that, would make it long enough for them to see each other one last time.
The next day, I was saddened to hear that the woman passed away before our friend could get there. Perplexed, I took the situation back to Jesus. It seemed like a good request, a kindness, so why weren’t our prayers answered?
Jesus was compassionate, He knows when something is hard for us to process. Gently, He told me about what He called “Touchstone Events.” These are pivotal moments in His plan that usually can’t be changed, even with a great deal of prayer, because so much else hangs on them. I still don’t understand, but I do know this: God’s motivation is always love, and the end result will reflect that.
That’s why God doesn’t give us what we request sometimes, or at least not in the way that we’d hoped. Because to do so would change or perhaps even dissolve the immense ripple effects of good that the event will cause. No prayer given with a faithful heart is wasted though, and God will bring good from it, even if it doesn’t look as we expect.
“A touchstone is a piece of fine-grained dark schist or jasper formerly used for testing alloys of gold by observing the colour of the mark which they made on it.” – Oxford Languages
My own touchstone event
This lesson became personal when my own Mother battled for her life in the hospital, then passed away earlier this year. I still don’t know why: why her, why now? But I trust that the God who created and redeemed her didn’t forget, at the end of her life, to bring His good work in her to completion.
I trust that the mark she left on our lives will be written in gold, shining in the scars of our grief. I trust that the test of her loss will show us who we are, what she left in us. And that in the valley of the shadow, everything that’s good will shine all the brighter.
Psalm 40:5, Philippians 1:6, Psalm 116:15, Psalm 23:4, Is. 55:9, Psalm 100:5, Psalm 31:15, Isaiah 46:10