Isaiah 38

I often tell my husband that nothing makes me happier than to hear those three little words from him: You were right. Such simple things can make a girl’s day! (ha ha) And I must admit that this was on my mind as I read today’s chapter from Isaiah. I imagine there are a lot of words we can say that would make God happy, and I think some of them were in this chapter.

Hezekiah was facing a terminal illness. Of course, he found this distressing: “I am in the middle of my life. Do I have to go through the gates of death? Will I have the rest of my life taken away from me? … I cried like a bird and moaned like a dove. My eyes became tired as I looked to the heavens. Lord, I have troubles. Please help me.” (vs 10, 14)

Hezekiah did what I’m sure most people do when facing a terminal illness: He begged God to heal him. And, for some reason, God decided to do just that. He told Hezekiah that he would live for another 15 years.

After receiving his healing, as Hezekiah was reflecting on all that had happened to him, he spoke these words: “What can I say? The Lord told me what would happen and then made it happen. I have had these troubles in my soul, so now I will be humble all my life. Lord, because of you, people live. Because of you, my spirit also lives; you made me well and let me live. It was for my own good that I had such troubles.” (vs 15-17)

God loves us in a big way; that is to say, He loves us in the context of the bigger picture. He may be interested in our comfort for the moment, but He is also interested in our best good for the long haul, and whenever and wherever those two things conflict, He will always choose what’s best for us in the big scheme of things.

And one day (hopefully in the not-too-distant future!), I believe we will stand with God and be able to look back over the course of our lives and see it then as He sees it now. And I believe that we will absolutely marvel at all the ways God was weaving His blessings into our lives and working out every situation for our best good. I can’t imagine doing anything but falling down on my face and exclaiming, “Wise and wonderful are your ways, O God. I wouldn’t change a thing!”

Just as it gives us pleasure to see the “light bulb go on” in our child’s mind when we’re sharing something particularly meaningful to us, I believe it brings God happiness when we can see how He has loved us in all the big ways—even when there might have been less-than-pleasant moments involved.

For all the times He’s had to say no or not yet when we didn’t really understand why, I think it will make Him happy to finally be able to show us what things looked like from His perspective. And I can’t help but think that He will have a tiny twinkle in His eye when we turn to Him, perhaps with a tear in our own eye, and say, “Now I understand. Thank you. You were right.”