A friend of mine died today. He was working on his roof and fell. It looked bad from the beginning, but he got better and better. But in the middle of his first day of rehabilitation, his heart stopped. His family was devastated. So was I. What do you say to his wife, the love of his life? I couldn’t say much. For a person who preaches and teaches, I was speechless. All I did was cry with her. If you’re reading this today, intuitively you already know that sometimes saying little is saying a lot.
You may be familiar with the story of Job in the Old Testament. In one single day, he lost his livestock, his money, his children, and ultimately his health. This was the worst possible scenario imaginable. He was experiencing grief upon grief. Just reading the story crushes your heart.
Much of the rest of the story is Job dialoguing with his friends who came to comfort him. They didn’t do a great job. But I must say, they started out right. Job 2:12-12 records this: When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.
On this side of heaven, we don’t have many answers to the “WHY” questions of life and death. At those times, we submit ourselves to our God who knows us, loves us, cares about us, and ultimately has every answer to every question. Our faith in Jesus is not dependent on knowing every “why question” today, it’s trusting our life, our death, and our future to the One who ultimately will make all things right.