Life is precious

I assist in WG's sunday school class once a month and I've done VBS preschool music for the past three years.  Thus, I've had the privilege of getting to know many of the wonderful children at our church and their equally awesome parents.  It really is one of the best ways to get connected in a church body and I highly recommend it.

This past Sunday, one of the girls in WG's sunday school class passed away. It was one of those tragedies that befall children that even the most vigilant parents never suspect will happen to any child, let alone theirs.  I don't know that it was even an avoidable episode and so it makes one stop and pause.  If life can end so quickly at the tender age of 6, no warning, no way to predict the danger, just an unexpected tragedy altogether, it begs the question: to whom does our life belong anyway?

In the face of such overwhelming tragedy and loss, I can't imagine wanting to run to God. I'd probably shake my fist and cuss him out, then turn the other way and never look back. When I look in my own 6 year old's face, her life so precious to me because she is my only unimpaired child, I shudder. WG's life is just as tender and vulnerable and that reminder gives me great pause.

I don't know if I'll cry about it. I read the obituary today and had to catch my breath. Such a sweet girl, such a nice family, such a mystery as to why and how she died. I think I'll just ponder the mystery and frailty of life instead. The tenacity of the human spirit coupled with the gossamer ties that bind us to life over death will never be understood. We have challenged traumatized children that live a lifetime of turmoil wreaking havoc on all those that love them while the unsullied little ones pass away in tragic ways that defy understanding. The only peace we can find is in the reminder that all life is precious and should never be taken for granted; that God is sovereign to give and to take without our comprehension of it all.