Trusting & Grief

The little sister of a girl I graduated with from high school was killed Thursday in a car wreck in Italy (she was serving in the US Navy there) on her way to work.  She was positively a beautiful woman, both on the inside and outside.  Her sister (my age) was almost killed in a car wreck when we were in high school.   Our class cheered (& cried) as she walked across the stage at graduation because she was told she would never walk again.

 

When you lose a loved one unexpectantly, there are no words to say.  Of course everyone says they are sorry for your loss.  People even go to the extent to say things like "our loss is heaven's gain."  No words can express the grief that is with you forever because that person is no longer here on earth to walk through life with you.

 

But what you really want to know is WHY???  Why was this woman killed in the prime of her life?  Why was my child taken away?  Why do people have to suffer so much through an illness that is terminal in the end?

 

Those questions may never be answered on this side of heaven.  Even if they were answered, those answers may never make sense.  The only thing that makes sense is that God is still God and He does things for our good and for His glory.  I may never understand how one's death may bring more glory to God than one's life.

 

A few years ago I had a dear friend & neighbor in her late 40's contract a rare form of cancer.  After months of treatment, she passed away.  During those months of her sickness, she was showered with love.  People from her church brought her food, sat with her in the hospital and even cleaned her house.  She was truly shown the love of God through the church--as His hands and feet.  I had the strongest sense at her funeral that a purpose in her sickness then death was for her to know the love of God.  I, of course, have no idea what God was doing in all that, but know beyond a shadow of doubt that she experienced Love in a way she never had before.

 

It all comes back to trust.  We have to choose to believe God or not.  We can't choose which part of God we will believe...it is all or nothing.  God loves us more than we can even imagine.  He has done everything for us to be able to be in a relationship with Him.  That is all He wants from us is to choose Him.

 

So in life, death, and grief, we have to trust.  We have to believe God is Who He says He is and live accordingly.  One day will be our day to stand before Him to give an account of our life on earth.  I know I want to hear "well done" and know that I did all I could for His glory while here on earth.  I am so not perfect, but I am perfect in Christ and that is how God sees me.  That is all I need to know...and rest in and trust in and believe.