The Suddenness of Sorrow

If anybody noticed that I haven't blogged much in the past 4 days, it's because my brother's oldest son, 28, was killed in a snowmobile accident. Pain like that tends to make the larger issues of the world seem less urgent. We went to the funeral and give what aid and comfort we could. It never feels like you can do anything, except provide a surrounding in which grief can be expressed without apprehension.

This young man was on the cusp of his adult life, just finished with college, planning marriage and then plucked away suddenly without warning. This is the kind of thing you fear and worry about when young men go to war, or take up dangerous sports, but one doesn't usually think of snowmobiling as risky behavior. When one considers the vast amount of sorrow and searing pain in the world, it's a wonder any of us can smile and laugh. That ability to find joy despite such events may be God's greatest gift to us.

We've had four funerals and a wedding in the past 18 months, and seen sorrow and joy in a variety of settings. It's at times like this that I find solace in the promise, "For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." It's one of the reasons I believe in a personal Father in Heaven--I can't imagine a deity without body, parts or passions hearing prayers, sharing sorrows or having sympathy for our troubles. Anything else would feel like I was praying to the weather. I don't think that everything that happens has been decreed from the start, but I do take comfort in knowing that God has not allowed anything that we can't deal with through faith and hope.