Mary Beth Chapman ~ Part Two

Continued from Part One of my account of Mary Beth Chapman speaking at the Women of Faith Conference in Columbus, Ohio. (Click here to read Part One.)

We waited, literally on the edge of our seats for her words. She looked down at her papers and sipped her water. There were some light-hearted quips about her sweet husband...little windows into life in the Chapman family. Then, she delved into her story and we were captivated.

She spoke of wrestling with God...

"I've always had a plan," she began, as she described her type A personality and her need for control. "But, there were so many plot twists...my plan had to go out the window."

She wanted to marry someone who was predictable, a planner with a schedule...maybe an accountant. Instead, she fell in love with a "guitar-playing, mullet-wearing, song-writing musician" named Stephen Curtis Chapman. The only thing they had in common was being in love and sharing the same last name. His glass is always half full...where hers is always half empty. Her family believed practical jokes were a love language. Stephen thinks practical jokes are "vandalism"! (That one really made me smile, because my husband is the same way. And, I know how ornery he was as a kid. So, it really makes me laugh that he is so strict about things like "toilet-papering". He won't allow our kids to do it! My mother went toilet-papering with me when I was in Jr. High...and even fell out of a tree and cut her leg when we were almost caught! Oops...did I just blog that?!)

She went on...

"God was writing His story all along and I was trying my best to control it."

As his career grew, she struggled with feeling even more out of control of their circumstances and their lives. She shared of her battle with clinical depression, an ongoing battle that forces her to draw near to Jesus.

Her words:

"(It) daily drives us to Jesus, the Healer of all pain in all ways."

Oh...what desperately beautiful words of hope and truth. He is the Healer of ALL pain...in ALL ways. He is faithful.

When she spoke of adopting their daughters from China, her words were so fitting...such a picture of the rescue that we ourselves have received.

She said...

"For the first time, I realized what Jesus did for us on the cross..."

"She had no name, no hope...We came and gave her a family, an inheritance."

Jesus came and did the same for us. "He told us, He would not leave us orphans."

And...He kept that promise.

Then...on May 21, 2008...

"God wrote a chapter in our lives that nobody wanted..."

She courageously and with raw honesty spoke the words that every mother can understand...

"As a mom, I would choose to have Maria back over all the lives this story has touched."

Tears streamed down my face as I nodded. We know. We know what she means. We know what it is to see God make beauty from ashes...to even understand how He has given us so much from walking that path. How He has touched so many lives because they lived on this Earth. But, we didn't choose it. And had we been given the choice to offer comfort to others or to watch our children grow up, we would choose to have them here with us. He sees the beginning from the end. We do not. And, we are mothers, after all.

Mothers...just like Mary Beth...who was busily living life when this storm swept in without warning.

And, then...these words from her mother-heart...

"I miss her with all the miss that there could be in the world."

Yeah...
They were living life...planning weddings and graduations...busily preparing. One day they were planning a wedding for one child, and the next, a funeral for their little girl.

"Satan surely came calling for the Chapman family...Satan didn't win. He won't win."

Her voice rose slightly with firm resolve as she said those words.

Life continued on with it's relentless pace...oblivious to the attack that had pummelled their lives. Their son sang at his graduation in the very same place where he had attended the funeral of his sister the day before.

They were initiated into the "fellowship of suffering".

Days into this new journey one of their children asked,

"Why is it so hard?"

Mary Beth answered, "Because God has asked us to do hard."

"We have chosen to see that God is in all of this...Can we choose to see God in the good and in the pain?"

She talked about Maria's Big Hope...about the promise that out of these ashes, beauty will rise.

As the days wore on, they were wanting desperately to "see" God's hand in all of this. The children found a drawing that Maria Sue had been working on. It was a flower with six petals...only one was colored in fully. To Mary Beth, that one represented her daughter...the only one of her six children who was completely full, healed, and home.

On the back of the drawing was one simple word...a word Maria Sue had never written before.

In big, unmistakably bold, capital letters the word...

SEE

They knew...

"God was with us...He has a plan for us."

She said so much more. Some of the most poignant and hope-filled words were lost in the frenzy as I frantically scrawled her words in my little green notebook in the dark. I desperately wanted to share the gift of those moments with you. She was speaking quickly at the end, conscious that time was running out. We could have listened to her all night. We sat captivated. She mentioned something about "we who are sufferers are invited...to a special place close to God's heart." She said it so much more eloquently, and I lost some of her words. They were words of faith and hope from a women who has been through the fires of desperate grief.

I will leave you with these simple words from Mary Beth...words of hope and truth.

"God is good even when life is not."

Stephen Curtis met her on the steps as she descended and he embraced her, his eyes still damp from the tears he shed, as she recounted their journey of beauty rising from ashes. With unabashed pride and love, he acknowledged the incredible courage she displayed...taking that stage to share such sacred pieces of brokenness and healing with all of us. We knew. We knew we had witnessed such intimacy from two people who have walked in the ruins and beheld the ashes of their lives.

Stephen bit back the tears several more times as he began singing the promise...

"Out of these ashes...beauty will rise..."

It's rising, sweet Chapman family...in all of it's heart-wrenching splendor...beauty is rising from the ashes. It is a glorious sight to behold...and one of extreme hope. Thank you for allowing us to see it...to hear it...to walk this path with you. And, thank you for your faithfulness as you continue to cling the One who carries you...the One who dances with you among the ruins.

Yes...

God is good, even when life is not.