God, life is so stinkin’ hard…………………

Why do we have to endure sorrow, grief, pain, broken hearts, abrupt change and death……………………….

There, I said it, that word that changes the face of everything.  Nothing is the same once it visits and all that is left is what resides in our memory.  Not to mention all the flood of shoulda, coulda, woulda’s…

I wish I had gone and tried to mend our relationship and said that it is okay and I forgive you…

I should have been there for them and maybe if I had this wouldn’t have ended like this or I wish I could have seen them once more before they departed this earth…

I would have given you the hug that I always withhold cause hugs are difficult for me to give (you know me) and I would have said just how much I love you so that there would never be any doubt about it…

The appearance of death at our doorsteps is inevitable…it will come!  So whenever I am touched by tragic loss, I first think oh my that could have been my loved one, and I thank God for the fact that it wasn’t but my heart bleeds for those now going through tragic loss.

The Word tells us that we are to mourn with those who mourn and in so doing we are sharing in the pain a person/family is going through.  God knows we weren’t intended to go there alone.  I remember an awful experience from winter when I got word one of my kids had been injured in a strange accident which should have resulted in a death, or at least disability.  I was devastated to think of what life might look like for this wandering one.  The emotional tide that washed over me was almost too much to bear.  And I was able to allow God to wrap me in His love with the promise that it would be alright.  In my loved one’s situation it turned for extreme good…

Then word came of the dear saint who lost her girl in a tragic accident…senselessly lost by the carelessness of a drunken driver.  A loss that has impacted a husband and family, his family, her family, friends and friends of family…and it goes on and on.  Our hearts  hurt for the loss of this dear woman of God and those others mentioned and yet we wrestle in our minds “why”? Why now, why her, why this way, why, why, why.

We go to the Father with all the questions and He allows us to question His sovereignty and His perfect plan and the fact that why did she have to go like this…God why???  And lovingly and ever so gently He reminds us that our days are preordained and that it will be okay and that not only does He love us but He reminds us that our loved one–because of being His child–is safe and securely with Him in glory!

Revelation 21:4 says what we all long to hear in the heat of our pain…

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither

shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

So we lean hard into the truth and we trust that someday He will turn our mourning into dancing when we once again see our loved one and God’s perfect plan becomes evidenced in our hearts and that the truth which is sometimes so hard to hear now makes perfect sense.

A hope song from Jeremy Camp, “There Will Be A Day”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le-TG4sRRiQ]

Thank you Father for being our comforter in the most difficult of times.  For some reason You allow us to experience excruciating pain whether physical or emotional and we just cry out to You and must trust You will take it away or not.  That You will give us the ability to endure it even though it feels like we are awash with the weight of the world as we go through this time of tragedy.  Thank You for holding our loved ones who grieve and for your promise that there will be a day when there will be no more tears and no more pain to endure albeit tears of joy, amen.”