God's will: not always a mystery

If I've heard it once I've heard it a million times--"God works in mysterious ways." We use the phrase to refer to a coincidence, an irony, a chance occurence that never should have happened. But the mysteries of God are much deeper than such improbable things. The mystery of God has to do with making the broken whole, the empty full, the impossible possible.

I check my blog daily even when I don't write anything, and it wasn't until today that I saw Shirley's comment from Friday. I was moved to tears as I read it. And at first I was so torn because I had not seen it and replied before Bill's surgery on Monday. I still haven't heard anything and I have been praying for both Bill and for Shirley. But I checked my blog and I have to believe that there is a reason God didn't want me to respond until today. Shirley, I don't know what that reason is, but whatever words I have today I pray they will be words from God's heart to yours my dear, precious friend.

Before I ever began this blog, I was praying for and following the story of a young woman on CarePages. A coworker knew her from church and told me about her. Her name was Jenny Bizaillion. Jenny was only 31 and was treasured by her family: husband, daughter (9), parents, siblings, extended family and friends. Her faith was a beacon for many people, and because of her CarePages blog, it reached many, many more and continues to do so. her condition was mystery and though she had medical teams working exhaustively around the clock and prayer warriors all over the world praying for her, God took her home. How does a family deal with a loss like that?

Then, last week, a precious lady who was a charter member of our church congregation--Evelyn Wilkerson--had a stroke and passed away. Evelyn had been suffering for years from health issues and was preceded in death by her devoted husband Stub. Her faith had been a beacon to many people also. It is easy to say that because Evelyn had lived a long life, had been suffering for some time and was no doubt looking for the day when she would be reunited with Stub, her death was easier to accept. But she will be missed and her death mourned by many.

I have been thinking about these two deaths. What do they have in common? Not much, although both deaths were followed by memorial services that celebrated their lives rather than mourning their deaths. That's because these two lives had one very important thing in common: their faith which was a beacon to many.

Intern Ellen preached a sermon on Sunday that touched me deeply. Maybe God wanted me to hear it before I responded to you Shirley. Ellen spoke of a pastor whose son was killed in a tragic car accident. He preached a sermon less than two weeks after his son died and thanked everyone for their prayers and encouragement. But he spoke with anger toward those well-meaning but misguided individuals who said that his son's death was God's will. He declared that death was never God's intention! God's intention is for us to live! The last death that God intended was that of his own son. God himself suffered the anguish of losing someone who was part of him. He suffered the separation and emptiness, the broken spirit, the lonliness. Why? Why on earth would he do that? Why on earth?

Ah. There is the mystery. A God who would come down from heaven to walk the earth. To be close to his creation. To understand his creation. More importantly to reach his creation. So his creation, his children, could reach him, understand him and know him. And just how do we do that? We come to him in our brokenness, in our anguish, in our aloneness. It is only when we are emptied of self that he can fill us with his Spirit. It doesn't require that we lose something or that we suffer, but unfortunately that is so often what it takes for us to understand him and to accept his love. It is hard to humble ourselves and submit our will to God's, so we are most vulnerable when we have nothing else left to cling to.

No, death is never God's will, but life is. It isn't his will that Jenny or Evelyn died. Oh, but while they were alive, it was his will that they lived such a life that others were drawn to him through them. It is not God's will that we lay down and die a spiritual death in our grief either. He would have us live lives filled with his grace. Grace to heal our brokenness, grace to fill our emptiness, grace to share our faith and be a beacon like Jenny and Evelyn. They are gone from this earth, but they have not succumbed to death, they have defeated it! They live on in all those who love them, and in that eternal kingdom where there is no more pain or sorrow, waiting for the day when we will all be reunited in a love that will clear away all the mystery and make all things possible.

Loving God, you know all too well the anguish of losing someone we love so deeply that we don't know where we end and they start. In our emptiness, fill us with your Spirit so that, when we have no words to cry out, your Spirit will groan and you will respond. Reach in and lift the pieces of our broken hearts, little by little, until scarred but whole, we can take on the image of your Son Jesus and be a beacon drawing others to his light. Amen.