God’s people have prayed for rain these last several years. And when the rain comes with unspeakable tragedy, we have difficulty understanding God’s ways. Preteen girls swept away in the dark of night. Families thrust into a raging river in the midst of a holiday weekend. Absolute terror in the darkness. Where is God’s peace in this?
Last week, July 7, was the 13th anniversary of the death of my daughter, Madeleine. She was 13 years old and died within hours of getting a headache that turned out to be an arterio-venous malformation.
As beautiful as this world is and as wonderful as our blessings from above are, you don’t have to look far to find tragedy, grief and pain. Even for believers (and much more for unbelievers) it’s so hard to make sense of the pain & loss. Where is the love of God?
The answer is that Jesus wept. He wept and still weeps for a fallen world. He wept and still weeps for the sin that corrupts the world that, in the beginning, He made. He weeps for diseases and tragedies that should never have been. He weeps for sin that corrupted his Father’s perfect world, and brought with it floods and aneurysms and fires and dementia. The sin that brought forth infant mortality and cancer and pornography and alcoholism and heart disease.
When people ask me how to make sense of my daughter’s death or the dead and missing children and families in Kerrville, my answer is that God, the creator & sustainer of the universe, is sitting on his throne grieving with us. Jesus weeps and waits for the day of resurrection and renewal. Just as he knew his friend, Lazarus, would walk out of the tomb, he knows that a day is coming when there will be no more destruction, disease and death. A day when every sad thing will come untrue.
My prayer: “Lord, help us make sense of our grief. How can the blessing of rain turn into the tragedy of young people’s lives being cut short, snuffed out and families being suddenly thrust into the torrent of raging water in the dark of night? Help us to understand how terrible things like this happen in a world that you created. Why do 13-year-old girls die suddenly of arterial-venous malformations and 90 year-old people crave release from this world but find no satisfaction? We are Christ followers. We are believers. We trust you. But, in the small hours of the night, our faith grows weak, and we struggle to understand the tragedy and the pain. Why did the blessing of rain this weekend come with destruction, terror and death? Why does the blessing of fire in our hearths also rage on the mountainside? Help us to understand ‘The Fall’, ‘The Curse’. Help us to understand Satan’s role in corrupting your perfect world. Help us to see that this is not the world that you designed. It is bent. The perfect world and the perfect relationships that you created were corrupted by the sin of man. Help us to understand that you grieve with us. Your heart hurts for those that are hurting. Help us to remember that you weep with us. That you care for us. And that this world, though wonderful and terrible both, is a vapor compared to the eternity that awaits us with you in your glory. Help us to keep that foremost in our hearts.
It’s through the name of Christ, and remembering the tears of Christ, that we pray, Amen”
Psalm 39
4“Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.”
With special thanks to:
Dr. Michael Hindman
Elder, serving at NB Church of Christ, New Braunfels, Texas
(friend of Kenny & Donielle Winter)