Weekly Devotion: January 30, 2024 by Ruth Bearden

God – Why?
Written by Ruth Bearden

Oh, God, our Father. Here we are once again. Our Morgan County community lost two precious young men last week – tragically and unexpectedly. We cry out to God grappling with a loss we cannot put into words. We have so many questions. We don’t understand. Where are you, God? How can a God that we know is good let these things happen? Why does he not intervene? How do we help the students we love so much understand something that we adults can’t even begin to process? There are just no easy answers to these questions this side of heaven.

There are many opinions about how we understand the ways of God in this life. We navigate the waters of who is right? What I believe about such things doesn’t really matter – what you believe is what matters. Whatever you feel about God today—whatever questions you have—He will meet you right there.

I believe in a loving, all powerful God. A sovereign God who lovingly directs our steps, but I don’t believe that it is ever God’s plan for a child to die. Can he bring good out of our suffering? Yes! Does he send us such suffering for a reason? No, I cannot make any sense of that thought, even as we know that He allows suffering to happen.

What we do know with certainty is that our good and all-powerful God loved us enough to give us the gift of free will. There is no half-way in free will. With free will comes brokenness, pain, and grief. We live in a broken world and that brings both great joy and unimaginable sorrow to our lives. There is illness, accidents, tragedy and loss because of the brokenness that comes from having free will. Yet, even that explanation leaves so many unanswered questions. Maybe all we can do is focus on what we do know.

We know that God loves us and is ever present with us – even in the valley of sorrow and death. We know He will never leave us or forsake us. We know Jesus grieves and weeps with us, as he wept for Lazarus when he died. We know he weeps for the Rabern family and the Jackson family. We know he weeps for all those that will always love those dear boys – the best friends, the teammates, the teachers, the coaches, the pastors, and the counselors that are grieving too.

We know that God knows and understands. God gave his only Son for us, submitting him to death, because he loves us so much. God mourns with us, even as he knows the victory in store and holds our loved ones in the Glory that is yet to be revealed to us.

We know and can be sure, as was Paul in Romans 8:38-39 that “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We cannot be separated from the love of God even when we cannot feel His presence.   We know that God is our refuge in times of heartache, our comforter and our one true hope. We know that this world is not our home and that our hope is secure in the life that is yet to come. We know that love endures all things, even death.

Most of us don’t know what it is to lose a child. We ache for those who have. We cannot fix it. Our words are inadequate. We can only love them and be there for them. May God comfort and hold close all of those in our beloved community that mourn today and in all the days ahead. We mourn with you.

In Christ,
Ruth Bearden