June 30
In Loving Memory of Lost Children
“No parent should have to bury their child.” This quote from last week summarizes what comes to mind when we consider the death of a child. Truly, no parents should have to come to terms with the death of their children. Yet they do.
I would like to continue to share some thoughts about this kind of loss, but first let me clarify a few things. I am not pretending to know how it feels to lose a child. I can sympathize, but it would be foolish and ignorant for me to assume I can really understand that kind of pain. Moreover, I am not trying to offer some sliver of truth that has somehow escaped the attention of my suffering brothers and sisters, nor do I expect observations, however true, to heal the hurt. That said, I hope these words will warrant a moment of worthwhile meditation.
Nothing about death is good.
Last week, we noted that death is inherently contrary to what God, the source of life, always intended for His creation. Paul explains the relationship between sin and death in Romans 5. In this section of Scripture, Paul argues that “just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin…so death spread to all men because all sinned” (v. 12 ESV). Just as surely as sin is contrary to the nature of God, so death is contrary to the will of God. As God explains the relationship between an individual’s sin and death in Ezekiel 18, He assures, “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone” (v. 32 ESV). Nothing about death is good. We ought not say otherwise.
But God is always good.
God’s goodness is unaffected by the reality of death. Whatever abyss such a painful separation may create, whatever emptiness may fill the hearts it touches, no one’s death makes God any less good. Of course, Satan would have us think otherwise. He eagerly awaits the moment to whisper the discouraging lie that man’s death is proof that God has abandoned His people. He would go so far as to encourage the false notion that death proves God does not even exist, that He is simply a comforting bedtime story for bleeding hearts. It would be a grave mistake, though, to believe anything that comes from the forked tongue of the father of lies (John 8:44). God is, in fact, very much alive, and He does not forsake His people, nor are His ears deaf to their cries.
If we are to provide any lasting word of peace to those grieving loss, we would do well to remember that though death is not good, God is; though saints may lose loved ones, they have not lost the God who loves them.
B.J. Young (6-30-19)