A Tragedy Too Close.

16 Mar A Tragedy Too Close.

Two Sundays ago I had to do something that I dread doing all the time. Something I can never get used to doing even though my job often demands it.
We were in a planning meeting for an upcoming program in Church and I stepped out with a pastor, we were headed for a quick survey in a nearby store on some items we needed to get. We spent a bit of time there and upon our return my husband met me outside and told me our father in The Lord had asked that I locate one of our young adults and stay with her to comfort her.

He said there had been a fatal accident involving her parents and that it didn’t look too good. Click To Tweet

Well, I thought, okay, we would pray and God would heal and restore…
Not long after we went in, my husband asked that I leave immediately with one of the pastors and locate the young lady’s house. I got a bit worried, I asked questions…
“What if she asked what I was doing there?”
“What should I say to her when I get there?”
“What exactly had happened?”

I did not understand my husband, he too was a bit flustered in his reply and I noticed he was a bit low and his words were heavy.

I Always Think I Am Not That Strong.
With heartbeat racing, and mind wondering, I joined the pastor in her car and we headed to the young lady’s residence. We had gone about half way when I got a call from one of the ministers in Church who told me the young lady’s father, who is a minister in our ministry had died on the spot with his younger son and his mother was very critical in the hospital.

I lost it then! The pain and shock hit me so hard. My sister who was driving kept telling me it was not true, she insisted that even if it was, God was going to bring them back alive. I hoped… and prayed too…

When we eventually came to see the lady, we met her in her living room, trembling in a corner on her couch, looking at me with bulging eye suspicion. She asked us what was going on and what we were doing at her house, through teeth so clenched I was scared. I later learned she was aware of the accident and nothing more…
I asked for a glass of water, just to make sure she could open her mouth, she took a little and continued quaking…

Later my husband came and she eventually perceived…her dad and brother were dead. Click To Tweet

The trembling increased.
While we were in her room trying to pack a bag for her to go home with us, I got a call that her mum had passed away too and I fell to the floor and did a bit of a hushed cry, I no longer completely hold it in…

I Never Had It So Close.
I have watched movies where family tragedies like this happened… but this was no movie…this was happening to a family in our church, a family I know closely, our hearts ached for the other children, our hearts were broken in pieces, it was too heavy to bear. Our hearts ached for our father and mother in The Lord, they have lost three children all at once. Our Church family all over the world was in pain…

But we take solace in God’s word in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 CEB
13 Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about people who have died so that you won’t mourn like others who don’t have any hope. 14 Since we believe that Jesus died and rose, so we also believe that God will bring with him those who have died in Jesus. 15 What we are saying is a message from the Lord: we who are alive and still around at the Lord’s coming definitely won’t go ahead of those who have died. 16 This is because the Lord himself will come down from heaven with the signal of a shout by the head angel and a blast on God’s trumpet. First, those who are dead in Christ will rise. 17 Then, we who are living and still around will be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet with the Lord in the air. That way we will always be with the Lord. 18 So encourage each other with these words.

Their death is VERY painful, heart wrenching painful and we totally wish they were here.

But God has them and the devil has lost them forever! Click To Tweet

We rest in the knowing that we will get to be with them in the church in paradise, rejoicing as we worship and praise our God eternally.

• We trust God for strength for them and the courage to not stop living but live and fulfil God’s purpose for them.
• We trust God to be that church family that they can look back at and know that we are there for them.
• We trust that God will take care of their other children and make something beautiful out of this terribly painful situation.

…To provide for Zion’s mourners, to give them a crown in place of ashes, oil of joy in place of mourning, a mantle of praise in place of discouragement. They will be called Oaks of Righteousness, planted by the Lord to glorify himself. Isaiah 61:3 CEB

If you or anyone you know is grieving, please encourage them with these two verses as you pray for them.

Do you know any close family tragedy like this one?
How did you deal with it?

Copyright© Teshuva 2016
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