A FRIEND’S GRIEF

A FRIEND’S GRIEF

A classmate and dear friend from Law School, lost his son. They buried him today.

My friend said he and his wife are terribly devastated.  But he said they have the calm assurance of God’s grace. He recited to me the affirmation of the great sufferer Job: Life is given by our  Creator and we have no claims over it, if He takes it away.

I have no words but tears for this good and loving father. For this bereaved family the sky is thick with the dark clouds of sorrow. But this darkness will sure come to pass,  giving way to a bright shining light of God’s glory.

I am encouraged by my friend’s steadfast faith.

By the world’s standard he is a successful man. A brilliant advocate, a partner in one of the largest law firms of the country, but this achievement pales in comparison with his steady and faithful partnership with our Lord Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith.

He trusts that his family will be given the grace to see the bigger picture in this tragedy.

Max Lucado once asked: “ Suppose death is different from what they (the Philosophers) thought, less a curse and more a passageway, not a crisis to be avoided but a corner to be turned?”

Usually in difficult times like this, we ask for explanations.

This I think is the right question.  

The great saint, Paul of Tarsus, the great lion of God assured us that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”(2 Cor. 4:17-18).

This is the bigger picture yet unseen. This is the bigger picture which one can see only through the glass of unrelenting faith.