A young girl died recently.  This certainly is not a unique situation.  People of all ages die every day all over the planet.  I don’t think about that very often.  Maybe I should.  But if I did, I can’t help but think I would gradually devolve into a pit of sadness that I would never be able to recover from.  And that would not be beneficial to anyone.  How do we differentiate between the death of a stranger and the death of someone we know?  Should we?  After Lazarus died, Jesus went to his tomb.  He met Mary(the sister of Lazarus) on the way to the tomb.  She cried.  Jesus was deadly moved and also wept(John 11:33-35).  And Jesus knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, yet He still wept.  Others had died during Jesus’ public ministry(about 3 years), but we do not see any written account of Jesus weeping at the death of others.

Death raises questions.  The death of the young and innocent raise even more.

Questions

Does prayer work?  A lot of people were praying for her to recover.  Those prayers were not answered, or at least not in the way so many wanted.

Was God listening?  I John 5:14-15 assures us that God hears(listens to) our prayers.  This is not a guarantee of outcome.  I can pray for a stack of gold bars, but I’m pretty sure that will not happen.  God is not some mere genie in a magical lamp, being summoned to grant out wishes.

Why did God not do what I asked(prayed)?  There are a variety of reasons why my prayer might not be granted.  I might be asking with improper motives(James 4:3). I don’t think that was the case.  I might as without faith that God will do it(James 1:6).  Definitely not the case.

If I pray with good motives and faith, is my request guaranteed to be granted?  The simple answer is “no.”  God has a plan.  We know parts of it(i.e. the general framework), but most of the finer details we do not know.  And the individual events in our lives are just some of those details.  In 605 B.C., Judah went into Babylonian captivity, which lasted 70 years(II Chron. 36:14-20).  After that captivity ended, God would bring His people back to the promised land(Ezra 1:1-4).  He also told His people that He had a plan for them(prosper, hope, future).  Jeremiah 29:10-14 discusses a bright future in contrast to the dark present(the 70 years of captivity).  In Rom. 8:28, Paul tells us that God works for the good of His people, those who love Him, in all things.  First century Christians experienced a lot of bad:  imprisonment, beatings, death, etc.  God wasn’t asleep at the wheel.  Those things happened for a reason.  Others saw the faith of the condemned.  That helped God’s kingdom grow.  That did not make it any easier for the condemned, but we can see the benefit with hindsight.  Paul told the church in Ephesus(Eph. 2:10) that God’s people are His handiwork.  He made us for good.  We won’t always see that good, I suspect more often than not we will never know the different things we do that benefit others in ways we never imagined.  The problem is that living in the present, we usually can’t see what is really happening.  We are understandably caught up in the “now.”  And when the now involves pain(physical or emotional), it is difficult to see anything else.

So, then what is the answer?  Sometimes we want answers in this life that we just won’t get.   In the book of Job, Job has ten children, and they all die in a singular, tragic event(Job 1:18-19).  As far as we know, Job never finds out why.  As the reader of the book, you know why, but Job doesn’t.  He simply has to put his faith, hope and trust in God.  And he does.  In the end, that is the answer.  It’s not the answer we want.  We like explanations.  We like specifics.  We want to now if the answer/reason is acceptable . . . to us.  However, when we start thinking like that, we elevate ourselves to God’s position.  And we are not God.  Not even close.  So that is something that we cannot do.  Ever.

Is It Easy to Do the Right Thing?

Sometimes it is easy to do the right thing; it feels natural or normal.  But sometimes it is very difficult to do.  In the Age of Information, not knowing seems anachronistic.  But putting our faith, hope and trust in God . . .  that should never get old.  Will the pain go away?  I doubt it, at least not in this life.  But in eternity, God will wipe away every tear(Rev. 21:1-4).  I look forward to the day when I can say to this young girl, “It’s great to see you again.  Isn’t God amazing?”  But until that day, I will have another break in my heart, which will likely heal(somewhat), but not completely, at least not completely in this life.