the best is yet to come

ever since my first trip to Haiti, I have struggled over how to ask Jesus to provide. I was confused, because what if I pray with a family for food and water and better shelter and less pain and less suffering and…the family stays poor? does this mean God doesn’t answer prayers? or worse, does this mean God doesn’t want these people to have their basic needs met? if i can’t promise these people less suffering, then what am I even here for?

i’d be lying if I said I don’t ask these questions anymore. I do. I am often quite overwhelmed by questions like this. but here is what I have rested in: the best is yet to come.

i met a woman in Coup Gorge (my favorite little haitian community) in march. we had just delivered her a new mattress and some beans and rice and she was telling us her story. a few years ago, right after this woman got married, her new husband left her and their children for a younger woman in the city. a couple months ago, the husband got deathly ill and the younger woman dropped him back off to his wife to die. of course, the wife took care of him until his last breath. something so incredible about Jesus, is that he seems to always pick us up right where we’ve been left. where this woman was left with infidelity and lies, jesus picks her up with loyalty, faithfulness, and consistency. where I have been left in sorrow and grief, jesus wraps me right up in love and grace. in whatever we’re lacking, jesus matches it. this doesn’t erase the pain we’ve endured by any means. but it does give us a whole lot more strength to keep pushing through.

i prayed over this woman and her new bed after hearing her story. I prayed for safety, for peace, for comfort and rest, for grace. but mostly, I prayed that this woman would rest in knowing that jesus is loyal to her, and that the best is yet to come; no matter what.

i realized very quickly that I cannot promise anyone that life will get better, easier, smoother, prettier. in fact, odds are that life will get harder. but what I can promise, through Jesus and because of Jesus, is that paradise is coming. I can pray with a haitian widow and assure her that there is an end to this pain, an end to this suffering, an end to this darkness. there is hope! a life with Jesus means that the best is yet to come. if not on this side of heaven, then on the next.

this is the whole point, isn’t it? heaven, eternal life, paradise. the end goal of hope in Jesus is that we get to be with Him forever. and so no matter what, the best is yet to come. in the worst of times, and in the best of times, paradise is waiting.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new!” —Revelation 21:4-5