“I’d rather be viewed as weak to the world because I’m submissive to my husband…than be weak in the Lord because I submit to the views of the world!” Candace Cameron Bure
My son has just died. He was only a boy, and he died in my arms. I saw the life go right out of him. My only son. My only child. I had rocked him in my arms and watched him die. I scooped him up and carried him upstairs. I placed him on the bed. This is not happening today. I am not going to outlive my only son.
I leave the room, but before I close the door, I look at his face and breathe deeply. I cannot fall apart right now.
I did the only thing I knew to do. I explained to my husband I was going to take an aid and quickly ride out to see the one man who could do something. I was going to bring that man back to our home. My husband didn’t understand my intention, so I stopped in my haste and grief and looked at him. “Everything’s all right.”
I couldn’t say more.
People do some crazy things when they grieve, especially when they have just suffered the death of a child. I’m sure my poor husband thought I was mad with grief because our only son given to us from Yahweh was now lying dead upstairs in a bed. Truth is I had never been clear-minded as I was right then. I just knew I had to go. I had to.
I was holding it all together. If someone asked me a question, my response was, “Everything’s all right.” It didn’t matter the question. That was my response. I don’t know if I was trying to convince them or myself. I just knew I had to get to that man.
That man was the man who promised me a son. That man had eaten meals in my home with me and my husband. With my husband’s permission, we made a room for that man to stay in our home. His room was where my son was lying right at that very moment. I had to get to that man.
When I approached his home, his aid came out. Once again, I said, “Everything’s all right.” Then I see Elisha’s face, and I run and fall at his feet. I had held it all together up until that point. I was sobbing. As I wept, I looked up at Elisha and said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me’?”
I never even told Elisha my son was dead. I couldn’t bring myself to speak those words. If I said them, they might take root and be true. But Elisha knew. He sent his aid to my home, but I insisted Elisha come. I wasn’t leaving without him. Gehazi took Elisha’s staff and ran to my home. He placed it on my son’s face, but he couldn’t resuscitate my son. Yahweh gave me a son through Elisha, and through Elisha, God would restore my son. I just knew it.
Elisha did come to my home. He shut the door and left me outside. “Everything’s all right. Everything’s all right.” I just kept repeating it over and over. When the door opened, Gehazi told me to go in, and there was my son. I had heard him sneeze. It was the best sound I had heard all day.
The Shunammite woman’s story can be found in 2 Kings 4:8-37.
There’s actually more to this woman’s story. She was a prominent woman in her community, and she was persuasive. She persuaded a quirky prophet to eat in her home. Then she asked her husband about creating a room for the prophet so he had a place to stay when he came through town. Each act of service grew her faith, and she did so by having her husband’s blessing.
Because of her service, her faith grew. Because of her faith, she was blessed with a son.
When her faith was put to an extreme test, her faith rose to the top. She didn’t prepare her son’s body to be buried. She prepared for what she believed God was going to do, and He did because of her faith.
Don’t you just love her!? I cannot wait to meet her one day. She was persuasive yet humble. She was submissive yet confident in her actions. She was content even though she lacked a son. This is one woman with whom I’d like to be friends.
If there’s a verse that best exemplifies her faith it is Philippians 4:11, “I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” HCSB
In Her Sandals is my attempt at reading and studying the Bible, then slipping on her sandals. While wearing her sandals, I am thinking about the things she might have felt, thought, smelled, touched and heard. In no way am I attempting to add to Scripture or take away from the Word of God.
I love teaching women about women in the Bible. Many women today find the women in the Bible to be un-relatable or not flawed, when that is not the case at all. In Her Sandals is a way for women to see women in the Bible as the beautiful but flawed masterpieces God created. Please feel free to share In Her Sandals with a friend.