Sometimes there’s no explanation, only revelation. And revelation is enough. Jesus said so. He said that we live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). I like certainty. I think you do too. Not everything comes with absolute certainty. Everything about God Himself does; however, not everything on earth. That uncertainty is part of the curse of sin. I’m thankful that once we get past this side of eternity and no longer are looking through a dark glass, we’ll know even as we are known.
One of our neighbors for several years comes from the African country of Eritrea. We have enjoyed them as neighbors. They have had three children. Early on, as we got to get to know them and they observed our children, they mentioned their appreciation for their behavior many occasions. My younger daughters enjoyed playing with them in our court at different times. When their oldest, a boy, became of school age, he attended our school, Bethel Christian Academy. They have loved and supported our school. We have gotten together with them for one of our five week Bible studies. They have visited our church. Their background is Coptic Orthodox. The oldest, a boy, my wife teaches piano, and I had driven him to school along with my children until this year. This year, however, I drove their middle child, a boy, to school. Two years ago they were blessed with a baby girl.
About six months ago, their daughter couldn’t walk straight and fell over, dizzy, and they knew something was wrong. They found that she had a very rare kind of brain tumor, until they finally discovered that it was the only thing like it that doctors had ever seen for someone her age. They operated to take out the tumor. They were successful and she went on chemotherapy. My daughters went over to play their violins for her when she was in the hospital in the city. Shortly thereafter, another tumor occurred in the same location. They operated to repair a shunt but they couldn’t take the second tumor out, and she went into a coma. Along with my assistant pastor, on Thursday night I went to a hospice to pray for her and encourage them. The mother had a very vivid dream the night before that we prayed for her and she woke up from her coma. She may have woken up the next night, Friday, but not here. She woke up in glory with the Lord.
How do we explain little ones like this two year old dying of something like this brain tumor? I don’t have an explanation. I don’t know exactly what God’s will is in this situation. I can go to the Bible, however, to find out some things that are absolutely true. First, God is a good God and everything from Him is good (James 1:17). Nothing is bad from Him.
I am sorry for your neighbor’s loss. I am sure it is a very difficult time for them.
I really liked what you said here,
“Third, even though we don’t know why this little one died, we do know that God is eternally loving, wise, and powerful. He could have done something to stop it, but He didn’t. That means that what happened is the best. I can only say that because I’m trusting God. He deserves to be trusted. The truth is that we all really deserve far worse than we get, and it is only as good as it is because of His love, mercy, and grace. We can give God glory at these times by trusting in Him. It might be easier to trust Him when times are good, but these are supreme times to let God know that we believe in Him.”
Amen.
Pastor, it was a surprise to learn more about their daughter since I remember the last time I saw them, that their daughter was doing well. Please give them my condolences and I’ll be praying that this will work on them toward salvation.
Psalm 145:3,8,9 “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. The LORDis gracious and full of compassion; slow to anger and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.”
Some years ago we had a very precious five year old that was a frequent patient at our place. She was in for various problems, none of which ever had a good reason. A couple of years down the road she was diagnosed with a very rare untreatable form of cancer. Devastating news to all of us and more especially her family. Day by day our people tended her needs, visited and prayed with the family. As the days turned into weeks, words of comfort became difficult to come by.
She dominated our lunch time chatter; our coffee break whispers. She went home with us at night and that ever present question…”What else can I do? What more do they need? Have I failed them in any way?” Then you would begin to ask yourself that question “WHY?”
I had the distinct honor of being with them as she passed from here to the waiting arms of Jesus.
How kind He was to do that. I t was like a reward…..”Well done thou good and faithful servant”.
Jesus taught us to serve as He served daily. He taught us to know pain and suffering, not quite like He did. He gave us the gift of compassion as He has for us. More importantly He left us with these words…
”Matthew 5: 4” Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted”. What a promise!!
We still live by that …up here..on
Blessings Hill,
Ruth
Pastor B,
Some of those very thoughts come to my mind when I am involved in a resuscitation of a young child. The only comfort I can find is that I know the baby will nolonger suffer pain o hardship, but will be in the presence of our Lord.
I’m sorry for your lose
This was an excellent post. I appreciate your honesty. No one has an adequate explanation for why these tragedies occur, but, as you said, we can and should draw strength from God’s word.
Thank you.