How Do I Respond?

   I thought of that South Korean ferry this morning, of those families who lost high schoolers in that accident, and how they must grieve. For some it might have been that the one lost was their only child, for a few that child might have been their only loved one. How would I have felt? How would I have coped? Despair, anger, resignation, bitterness? I 'm sure those involved must have gone through them all in the days following.

   It must have been the same with the Malaysian airliner, the one they still have not found.

   We lose all kinds of things in this life; health, wealth, jobs, and all sorts of tangible items, but the worst loss is in the area of people and relationships.

   What of that next verse in Matthew 5, verse 4, in The Message:

“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you."

   Or in the New King James Version, a more familiar translation:

"Blessed are those who mourn,
    For they shall be comforted."

   When I read these words, and try to put myself into this situation, what I see is people, especially family.

   I don't want to lose anyone of these or any of my friends either, but the facts of life tell me that it does and will happen. Illness, estrangement, conflict, and death can take or pull them away. The fact that it happens does not take away the sting.

   But Blessed? That is what Jesus tells His followers on the mountainside in Galilee 2,000 years ago, and what He speaks to us today.

   When friends turn against us, or desert us...

   When illness or death takes one of ours away...

   How are we blessed?

   By turning to the One who cares the most and who has it all under control.

   I know that it is easy to sit here and write those words, especially if I am not living through the trauma of loss right now, but that does not make them less true, and these things will come in a fallen world.

   How I act in the midst of them is the key.

   God help me to remember and trust.