When Tragedy Strikes Your Community
The community of Charlotte is grieving deeply over the recent accident that took the lives of a 2 year old and his brother delivered by emergency c-section.
It’s the kind of tragedy that leaves no words. The grief this family faces is unimaginable. The community has been rocked. You don’t have to intimately know a family to grieve alongside them. That is what families in Charlotte and beyond are experiencing right now.
No matter what tragedy hits or where it hits, God is still in control. While we can’t make sense of this, and we cry out to God and ask why, if we are His, He holds us and comforts us, He carries us, He mourns with us.
I recently had a friend ask how we can reconcile how God allows these tragedies to happen. The answer is that we can’t reconcile tragedy. It’s horrendous, it’s painful, it’s raw and burning. There is no reconciling on our end. But we aren’t left to hurt alone. God has reconciled the wrongs in this world through the cross. And while we grieve here, and we are held in His arms, He whispers reminders of His promises to us. He will comfort us as a mother comforts her child (Isaiah 66:13). He will hide us in his shadows while these calamities pass by.
He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Psalm 91:4
He has a place for us in eternity when we have accepted His son, and this….this is our hope. This is the ONLY way we can get through tragedy. Knowing that one day there will be no sorrow, no sadness – that is where we place our eyes. We hurt, we cry, we grieve, we suffer, but He’s taking us to a place unlike anything the mind can conceive. (1 Cor 2:9)
There is a God who created a perfect world, sin entered this perfect world and messed it up. But God put a plan in place to save us from our pain before the pain touched our lives. From the beginning of time, God pointed us towards reconciliation and restoration. It is the cross.
The cross reconciles the wrongs, the injustice, the wounds. The cross restores our souls. The cross tells me that when I’ve accepted Christ, my hope is in eternity with Him, not left in a state of mourning here.
The thing that stilled my grieving heart this morning was this article. A family forgiving the man who took the lives of their two children because they know they too have been forgiven. And asking the community to forgive. Only God. Only God make a heart ripped open forgive.
Would you pray for this family? We are surrounded by stories too heavy to bear. We are surrounded by life that is too much to handle. He knew that, He reached down, He righted it all in the cross. And His desire is that we lean into Him as He carries us from here into eternity. This world may try to crush us, but He promises that His children won’t be crushed. He holds us.
If you do not know Jesus as your personal Savior, I invite you to turn to him today, right now. He is waiting for you with open arms. If you have questions and don’t know what it means to accept Christ as your Savior, please email me. I’d love to share with you how you can enjoy eternity with the lover and creator of your soul.
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