Monday, April 14, 2014

Unthinkable {finding hope in the midst of grief}

That night the phone rang and the news was terrible.  That a story reserved for far away evening news reports had happened close to home and our children had suddenly and violently lost a friend.

That across town a mama went home on crutches to a house with an empty bedroom because the lady in the swerving car, she just had to get behind the wheel full of alcohol and empty of sense.  In one awful moment a boy who was helping his mama change a flat tire was taken.  And his twelve year old sister saw the whole thing.

This hurts.  This is true, biting pain.

And in this pain we struggle.   As the pastor said this morning to a roomful of quiet, grieving teenagers, this is where what we know about God in our head becomes real.

This is where our faith becomes solid...or it shatters.

Because in these awful, tragic days either God is real or He is not.

Either God is good, or He is a tyrant.

Either Heaven will be worth it all, or this life is just a cruel, painful joke.

These kids are wrestling.  Who am I kidding?  We are all wrestling.  And, like Jacob, we walk with a limp.  We stumble to the throne and fight for hope, fight for purpose when it all just seems senseless and unfair.

"He was so nice, mom," said my son.

So nice.  The giver, the funny one, the one who volunteered when no one else would, the one who took my boy around on his first day at the tutorial and made sure he met eveyone.

So nice.

And we wonder why and we shake our fists and God, He meets us right there.
With eyes full of kindness and tears running down because, even when Jesus knew the ending of the story, when He knew what He was about to do for Lazarus who lay bound in the grave, He wept.

He wept.  And so do we.

And the end of the story?  The end is redemption, reckoning.  The end is the ceasing of the madness and the ever-thickening darkess because our King...He is coming soon.

Yes, even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.

3 comments:

  1. That's a touching story. I can't imagine the pain of a mother who had lost his child.

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  2. This is a beautiful post, Jeanine. My heart goes out to his family and friends. You are very wise and have a way with words. I wanted to let you know that I just nominated you for the Liebster Blog Award! You can check out the details on my latest post at smushedkisses.wordpress. :)

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