In the Face of Grief
As many of you know, we have been praying for Mandy Lathim, who was in a car accident 18 days ago.
Last night she left earth for Heaven.
It seems that there are certain stories that just bring the reality of life and death to the forefronts of our hearts and we are forced to ask a lot of questions. Why did that accident have to happen in the first place? Why couldn’t God have chosen to heal her? Why is this the ending that we all have to grapple with? WHY?
Thankfully there is a God big enough to handle all of our shock, grief, disappointment and difficult questions. And I believe that all of the questions are answered in the fact that God doesn’t think in years, He thinks in eternity. When we are asking, “Why was this life cut short?”, He is standing in Heaven, looking forward to forever with His child. When we are thinking, “That life had so much potential!”, He is excitedly telling His child that she is a good and faithful servant for using her time on earth well. When we are wishing that there was more time, He is crying out to us that if we choose to trust in Jesus, we get all of eternity together!
It is simply our short, earth-bound perspective that we so deeply struggle with. Our small eyes cannot see as far as we need to in order to understand. That lack of understanding can bring about the litany of emotions that we will all come face to face with when we stand in the presence of grief. Sadness, frustration, despair, regret, anger…God has seen all of those emotions and He understands. That being said, we can’t stop in the middle of the emotions. We must let God meet us in the anger, the sadness, the frustration, and the regret. We must let Him walk us through it and help us to see a little wider view of His plan. On that journey, the gift He will give us is HOPE. Hope for our time here, hope to see that loved one again, hope that peace will replace hurt.
In the midst of the grief, we continue to pray for that hope for Mandy’s family with the same ferverency that we’ve been praying for Mandy. We will also honor her life by appreciating our loved ones a little more today. We will use our time wisely and with purpose because she reminded us that life is precious. We will celebrate her life with a vivaciousness, rather than allowing the questions to consume us.
And most importantly, we will remember that while we aren’t promised a long life on earth, in Jesus’ name, we are promised eternity together.