It is amazing how strong the bond can be to old high school or college friends. Those early stories, memories, and moments leave a mark. After many years, some friends from college came to my son’s high school graduation party this past May. It was great catching up, and they were excited to tell us about their daughter who would be starting her senior year this fall. Just recently, we heard their daughter very suddenly died of some kind of brain tumor. It came out of nowhere and now life is very different. Everything has changed.
What do you say? What do you do? How do you respond to what has to be the hardest thing in life to go through? For me, it is very hard to spiritually process these kind of moments, and I struggle to know how to come alongside others. I starred at a card we were going to send, and found there were just no words that fit this kind of moment.
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But somehow, I have a sense that God meets us in those moments right in the eye of the storm. I know that in a couple of my most difficult moments — times when I was ready to walk away, times when I was not sure this God thing was real or worth it — it was in those times that He somehow broke through in unique and powerful ways. But the whys, the typical lines… they just make no sense. Somehow in this world that is struggling and often full of such hurt, God meets us in the darkest and hardest places. I have to believe he cries with us, grieves with us, and celebrates the moments yet to come. It is impossible to make sense of it, and the questions that arise in a time like this are too numerous to mention here.
Psalm 62 does come to mind: ”My soul waits in silence for God ONLY. For my hope is only in him, He only is my rock… ”
Still I wonder, how does his greatest gift suddenly turn into such grief and heartbreak? I don’t know, but I do believe He meets us in the eye of the storm, and he somehow walks with us right through all of it. I hang on to that. I hope for that. I need that! And I hope my friends are able to somehow meet Him there as well.
