He Draws Near: Shelly’s Experience

As I sit down to write about “drawing near” I am currently being told to stay six feet away from my friends and others I love. The irony. I pray that by the time you are reading this, we are past the coronavirus crisis and are once again able to be near to those we love and proximally close to others in our community. 

I grew up in a Christian home, so I was taught from an early age that Jesus loved me and was near to me at all times. Even with that knowledge, when my son was stillborn at 37 weeks, I needed to feel His nearness.

On my kitchen window, I had a box of cards with Bible verses on them that someone gave me as a wedding shower gift. Every day (or so – depending on the chaos the kids were creating that day), I would flip to a new verse. The day after my son died, I flipped the card and it said.

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart. Psalm 34:18

I remember thinking life was hard in elementary school when this Southern girl moved to the seemingly foreign land of Boise, Idaho, or in middle school when the queen bees and wannabes were being…well, queen bees and wannabes. Or when I had a difficult boyfriend breakup. Or when the major I picked for college had classes like chemistry and physics that didn’t agree with my brain. I thought life was hard then.

During the first seven years of my marriage, I experienced the death of my husband’s parents—on the same day. And they had been sick for the three years before that. Then, my younger brother broke his neck and became a quadriplegic. Those were hard things. But nothing compared to the death of my son!

The loss of my son taught me what it truly was to have a broken heart.

It also taught me what it was to draw near to the Lord and have Him draw near to me. 

The day I flipped the card over and saw the words, “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,” it felt like the Lord was reaching down and writing those words on the card that day with His own hand. I really felt like He was doing that for me to remind me He was still near to me—and He knew my heart was absolutely broken. I felt seen, loved, and known by God. 

I love how the second half of this verse is worded in the New Living Translation.“He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” Jesus doesn’t just draw near to the broken hearted; He rescues them. He rescues us. He does more than just sit by our side. He heals.  

I think of a sick person in the hospital. The doctor doesn’t just come in and sit on the patient’s bed, pat their hand, and say, “I’m here.” The doctor doesn’t stay in the hallway either. No, the doctor comes in the room, sees the sick person, and does what he needs to do to help the person get well. 

I think Jesus is a lot like a doctor. He comes near to us. He sees our sick hearts and then He offers to heal them. He encourages us and comforts us. He shows compassion to us in our pain. 

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. Psalm 34:18 (NLT)

Dear mama, if you are struggling to feel the nearness of our Father, let me encourage you to grab this promise from His Word and hold onto it tightly. Reach out to Him and draw near to Him. He is waiting. 

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. James 4:8

---

Shelly D. Templin is an author, speaker and blogger that shares a message of hope—with humor. She has three daughters, a son-in-law, and a granddaughter. Shelly lives in Texas with her husband, Jack, of 29 years and their two dogs.

Are you a writer who would like to join the blog team? Learn more and apply here.

---

---