I have been grappling with the recent tragic deaths of three friends. One who was killed in a car accident last month. Two – a couple – who were killed in a car accident last week.

Even though our lives were no longer full of shared experiences as time and distance had taken their toll, the relationships were still there. We still counted one another as friends. One was a sorority sister with bonds from college that never go away. The other two were a couple I knew through Sunday School and church.

They were all my age. The couple had children my children’s ages. Three young adult children left to navigate this world without the guiding influence of their parents. I put voice to what many are thinking. What if that had been me? Us? Our children left?

I don’t know if my sorority sister was a Christian. I do not know what her faith was. I doubt that she was, given some of what I do know. I pray that she was. I know that my spirit grieves the very real possibility that I will never see her again.

I know my other friends were believers. They were strong in their faith and I am thankful for the assurance that they are with Jesus and that we will see each other again. I am praying that assurance somehow seeps into the heartbreak, the anger, the questions, the hurt, and the shock that surrounds their death.

When life isn’t life but death, how do we live where that intersects with faith? I don’t want to offer simple Christianese attitudes and I’ll honestly say that knowing God’s ways are higher than man’s ways is not immediately comforting to a hurting heart. Yet, faith compels that I believe God is good even in the midst of tragedy and I will choose to believe that.

Jeremiah must have asked the same questions – Why? How? When? The Lord responded to him with words that we too can take comfort in.

“The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss.

Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:

The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!’” (Lamentations 3:19-24 NLT)

There is more to say, I know it.  The words simply do not come.  So I stop and stay focused on HOPE.

Blessings,

Denise