Once, when I was a little boy, something happened to me that was way beyond my control. I had sustained a dangerous head wound and was helpless. My father took me in his arms and carried me to the hospital which was very near to where we lived. I’m sure my dad lived the event over and over in his mind all the days of his life, even though he rarely mentioned it. My mom and dad were not young when I was born and our age difference could have made him my grandfather. He had lost my sister only five years before and must have died figuratively many times as he carried me to medical help. My father did not cause the accident, would never had let it happen if he had been there. I don’t know what went through his mind as carried me in his arms; perhaps this, “ I would never dream of letting something like this happen to you, but if you will let me, I will love you through this, help you through this, and show you how it will work eventually for your own good.”
In this world bad things happen. When they do, God is there and He, like my dad, says, “ I did not cause this, I would never plan this horrific thing that has happened to you, but know this, if you let Me, I will love you through this, help you through this, and show you how it will work eventually for you own good.”
Surely God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my defense,
He has become my salvation. Isaiah 12:2 (NIV)
My dearest cousin’s husband is dying. How odd that phrase when , in fact, we are all dying, just at different times. For an atheist the idea of death must be one of great loss and despair. To have as your only hope, “like the little dog rover, when you’re dead you’re dead all over,” would not be extremely comforting. I suspect most atheists don’t remind themselves of death very often. Yet, we are surrounded by it. Every day the local paper reports them in the “obit” section. I am very happy to report that my cousin’s family are not atheists and have a comfort available to them that is not the case for people that prefer to “go it alone” without God. There are days when my cousin’s husband just wants to go on and leave the old shell behind, but he lingers. Even in asking, “why,” we know, if we’re honest in our quest for the answer. I believe the answer is the one given by one actor to another in a movie I saw once. One asked the other on the occasion of leaving this life for the next, “It’s hard to let go isn’t it?”
Physical life is precious, it’s a gift of God, yet, eternal life is so much more a gift. The transformation from one to the other is a great mystery. In his great novel, “If Winter Comes”, A.S.M. Hutchinson describes how a young man named Freddie Perch who had just been killed in the war (WW I) came back to help his mother die. He was the type of son that would never allow his mother to even cross a road without him. And here he was to help his mother cross the greatest road in her life.
She was moaning…. That inhabitant of her body had done its preparations and now stood at the door in the darkness, very frightened. It wanted to go back. It had been very accustomed to being here. It could not go back. It did not want to shut the door. The door was shutting. It stood and shrank and whimpered there….. It was old Mrs. Perch that stood there whimpering, shrinking upon the threshold of that huge abyss, wide as space, dark as night …
Practical Christian application:
1. We have confidence in an eternal reward through Christ
2. It’s impossible for us to fully understand God’s will
3. God wants us to have patience, know that evil will not prevail, and to fully place our trust in Him
Last week we lost a 15 year old family member after a lengthy battle with cancer. Her struggle was featured in a post by her grandfather last month. As I prepared to officiate over her funeral I thought it was appropriate to share on this blog the comfort our family found through God.
Over and over family members and friends in the community asked how God could let something so terrible happen to someone so young. A close friend who had lost his wife in a tragic car accident years earlier had great counsel to me. Part of his word he took from a message Billy Graham delivered on the National Day of Prayer, September 14, 2001
I’ve been asked hundreds of times in my life why God allows tragedy and suffering. I have to confess that I really do not know the answer totally, even to my own satisfaction. I have to accept by faith that God is sovereign, and He’s a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of suffering. Full message here
Our family found great comfort in suffering knowing that God is a loving God even though we may not know why such tragic things happen. We choose to trust God.
