I just finished a post on acting on belief. Now the rubber meets the road.
A week ago yesterday, I read with joy that a friend, a young mom, and her husband had welcomed their third child, a little girl, into the world. I can remember watching with a smile and a warm heart the video that mom posted on Facebook about seven months ago. It showed her telling the older siblings about the little baby that God was going to send into their family. I know what a special time this has been for the family; I remember somebody once saying to me about this vibrant young woman, “All she ever wanted was to be a mommy.”
I got home tonight from an evening out and read an alarming prayer message in my email: that young mom had stopped breathing about an hour before and had been taken to the hospital. They were having trouble regulating her heart beat.
I am getting ready to go to bed. I check my email one last time, to see if there is any update on her condition. The new email begins, “It is with heavy hearts…” Just like that, I learn my young friend has died.
And I ask, “God, how could you do that?” This little baby has only seen the light of day outside the womb for eight days. Those dear little children are just beginning the journey through their lives. That husband and dad needs his helper, his partner. This family just lost an uncle less than a month ago; he died after being given the wrong dosage of medication.
If my questions of the moment loom large, I can only imagine those of my friend’s family. God, pour out your mysterious, unfathomable love in these moments for that husband, those precious little ones, the parents and brothers, and all who loved my friend. Where there can be no answers in the moment, put your love and your peace where there cannot, humanly speaking, be an ounce of it.
In the words of an Old Testament king who had nothing but what a God of grace might choose to do in his dire straits, I say, “We don’t know what to do; but our eyes are upon you.”
Lord, have mercy. Friends, pray.
Wow.
God has some mysterious plan that is far beyond what we can see. May the Lord be merciful to that family.
I just feel so sad for all who are feeling the huge weight of this loss. I had seen a vague tweet from Jon this morning about watching the news spread, but didn’t know the story until I read your post. Praying for all of you who are touched by this tragedy.
Thanks, Paul and Jim.
I will keep them and you in my prayers. While our words seem useless during such difficult times, I do believe that God grieves with us.
I stood at the end of my dad’s bed in the middle of the night eleven years ago watching him grow weaker and weaker. I remember praying and “giving God permission” to take my dad. As I breathed the words “take him,” the Lord clearly said to me, “diabetes and heart disease are taking him, I am receiving him into my presence. I did not know Rachel but I believe a medical condition took her and God received her. Perhaps it doesn’t lessen the pain and certainly God could have prevented those deaths but for me His words gave me a different picture of Him.
That is a perspective I will remember, Tom…and I am certain that I will have a chance to share it with someone else somewhere along the road. Thanks!