A Mother’s Agony

A Mother’s Agony

Can God be trusted with our children?

THE EARLY years on the mission field were very difficult for Jonathan and Rose Goforth. Four of their eight children died in their first twelve years in China. During the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the family barely escaped with their lives. They traveled home to Canada for a brief furlough and then returned to China with a new addition to their family, little Constance, who was born during the furlough.

Back in China, Jonathan’s new responsibility was to evangelize one-third of the Changte region. On their way to the mission station, Jonathan told Rose about the plan he felt God had given him to reach this goal. He would send one of his assistants ahead to rent a place for the family to live for a month. Once there, Jonathan would preach in the streets or villages during the day while Rose would preach to women in their courtyard. Each evening they would hold a service in their home with Jonathan preaching and Rose playing the organ. At the end of the month they would move to another town, leaving behind an evangelist to teach the new believers.

Rose thought it sounded like a wonderful plan, but as they had five little ones, she was adamantly against it. She would remain at their home at the Changte mission station, and that was that. Having already buried four children in China, she couldn’t bear the thought of losing another, and she was convinced Jonathan’s plan would put the children’s lives at risk.

As they made the long river journey to Changte, Jonathan continued to plead with Rose. He also loved their children dearly and couldn’t bear the thought of losing another, yet God had given him an inexplicable peace that they would be safe if they followed this plan.

Finally Jonathan said to her, “Rose, I am so sure this plan is of God that I fear for the children if you disobey his call. The safest place for the children is the path of duty. You think you can keep your children safe in your comfortable home in Changte, but God may show you you cannot. But he can and will keep the children if you trust him and step out in faith!”

The Goforths reached their home at Changte on a Saturday evening. On Sunday morning Rose left the children with their faithful servant. Two hours later Rose returned to find their son Wallace ill. The doctor was called, and he diagnosed it as one of the worst cases of dysentery he had ever seen.

For two weeks Jonathan and Rose struggled for the child’s life. Finally Wallace began to recover. When Jonathan felt confident that his son would survive, he left to begin his first evangelistic tour alone.

The day after Jonathan left, baby Constance became suddenly ill, just as Wallace had, only much worse. By the time Jonathan arrived, Constance was dying. As the two parents knelt beside her, Rose suddenly experienced a revelation of God’s love in a way she hadn’t considered before—as a Father. All of a sudden she was filled with the realization that her heavenly Father could be trusted to keep her children. It so overwhelmed her that she could only bow her head and pray, “O God, it is too late for Constance, but I will trust. I will go where you want me to go. But keep my children!”

Such peace and joy came over Rose that when Jonathan turned to her and sorrowfully said, “Constance is gone,” she was comforted knowing that her baby’s life had not been in vain.

Little Constance was buried next to two of her sisters on October 13, 1902, her first birthday. Armed with her renewed trust in God’s faithfulness, Rose had two more children while they served as missionaries, but no more died in China.

Reflection

What lessons can you learn from the experiences of Rose Goforth? Are there things for which you find it difficult to trust God? Rose discovered that the path of faith is the path of obedience.

What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.

Hebrews 11:1