A 24-year-old Indiana girl’s life is changed forever in the blink of an eye as she looks up from texting and driving at 80mph to see 4 children, 3 of them siblings, crossing her path on a highway, as she unknowingly blows through a school bus stop sign. She instantly hits all four of them, killing the 3 siblings, and terribly wounding the other. A tragic, life-defining moment.
A missionary wife and mother of eight is left scrambling to protect herself and her children after her husband is shot in the head just two weeks after their family arrives on the mission field. Lives. Changed. Forever.
A 63-year-old husband and wife awake to being pepper-sprayed and then stabbed to death by their 21-year-old adopted son who bagged their bodies and dropped them into a ravine behind their house less than a mile from one of our family member’s homes.
…All of these tragedies happened within the last week, and each one personally hit close to home for our family in one way or another.
And we were once again reminded that life can change in a moment, in an instant.
Life is a vapor.
I can still remember the night well when I was at work and received a phone call that my soon-to-be father-in-law was in a horse riding accident, and there were more questions than there were answers. Upon arrival, I found out that the Lord had taken him home at the age of 53, two weeks before he was to perform our wedding. It was one of those days that you look back on as a day that life changed forever, never to be the same again.
As we were discussing these recent events of the past week with our children, one of them made this comment, “Why do we act surprised every time things like this happen?” And so as discreetly as possible, I reminded all of our children of why we Never want to get used to these types of situations. Here are a few of the points of our discussion:
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May we never become calloused to the pain of others.
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May we never stop seeing the souls behind the sorrows.
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May we always remember that everyone is either going through a storm, has just come out of a storm, or is about to go through a storm.
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Circumstances like these change people’s lives forever. Everyone assumes it will never happen to them. May we always remember that at any moment, it could happen to us.
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There is great power and comfort found in the promises of prayer and faith. So may we speak of these kinds of tragedies with a tear in our eye, and an obvious sincerity in our hearts.
“Be kind, because everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle you may know nothing about.”
As believers, we have hope.
Job worded it well when he said, “Man that is born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1)… But Paul also brought perspective to this life when he said that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:18)
Thankfully as believers in Christ, we “sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” (I Thess. 4:13)
And may we always remember that these are teachable moments to take advantage of to mold and shape the worldview of our children and their perspective of suffering and tragedy in the world.
Yes, our personal time of suffering will come. And maybe for some, you are going through that time right now. A time when there are more questions than answers. But may I remind you that God is good, he has a purpose, and may our lives always give testimony that this is true.
Romans 12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
