Today’s post was supposed to be funny. It’s all finished and ready to go. You’ll see it next week, I promise. But something’s happened that takes precedence now.
Late Wednesday afternoon, I got word that the mother of one of my son’s schoolmates died Tuesday evening.
She was the picture of health, yet her body failed her. Unexpectedly. Tragically. And less than three weeks before her only child graduates from our little pre-kindergarten through sixth grade school.
Her son was the reason we considered the school in the first place. I’m not sure she knew that. When my son was two, we saw her son and his friends at a neighborhood playground.
My son was and still is fearless, climbing and running underfoot of the big kids. Before I could get to him to protect him that day, this woman’s son shielded him. He was only in second grade himself.
While other children ran wild and oblivious, he and his friends gently steered my precocious cub out of harm’s way. My heart melted as I heard him tenderly speak to my baby, “Be careful, little guy.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Where do you go to school?”
I tucked his answer away. That’s what I want for my son, I thought. That’s what I want him to be.
School may have a lot to do with it. Family has more. His family is noble, kind, gentle, handsome, generous. You could see it in this woman and her husband. You can see it in their son.
Now is a time for stillness. A time to hold my own husband and son.
Now is a time to be shaken. To be reminded we were not made for death.
It’s a time to watch clouds and notice peonies. See a friend. Eat dessert. Walk the dog. Go to church. Open the Bible. Wrestle with God and be held by Him.
A time to pray for courage for this family, for this husband and son. Courage for them to carry on, and then for the rest of us as well.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4 NIV
God is not silent, apathetic or cruel, but in situations like this it can seem so. Face the feeling that God Says Nothing Back and bring it to Him.