Hard Things

During this wonderful thanksgiving season, and the weather finally getting blessedly cooler, things haven't all gone as we'd hoped.  Of course we're getting used to this in our journey with the Lord as I guess He's teaching us how much higher His ways are than ours.  This time though it's harder because it's happening to our friends and not to us.  It seems that I can trust God with myself and my family, but it's just harder to watch Him take my friends down such hard roads.  Maybe it's part of having the spiritual gift of mercy...or maybe it's how God is showing me how He wants me to walk down our own hard road.

I have a friend, who I love dearly, whose husband was recently involved in an accident where a woman died and it seems as if her family is trying to place blame on him.  It's so heart wrenching to me because he was going about his job doing what he had to do, she was going about her business, the accident happened, and both their lives and the lives of their families are changed forever.  It doesn't make sense to us why things like this happen.  The part that is hardest for me is that this particular friend doesn't have a relationship with Jesus from which she can draw her strength.   He's the only place I know to go to for strength, and I cannot imagine facing something so difficult without Him holding me up.  I can only hope that through our friendship that she will see the only true source of strength.

I also have another friend who's facing one of the hardest things imaginable.  Yesterday we went to a beautiful funeral service for their precious little girl who I never met in person but who I love so very much.  Her name is Charlotte Hope and she lived for 2 weeks.  All of the details about her tough little life can be found at www.charlotteshope.com if you would like to read the details.  Her parents have a beautiful relationship with Jesus that has given them the strength they need to get through each difficult day.  Her parents and I are not as close as I would like to be, but both having complicated pregnancies bonded us quickly.

The funeral was half extremely sad and half joyful celebration of the gift of life no matter how short.   The flowers on top of her tiny little casket were larger than it was.  There were so many people there that it was standing room only and people in the back and out the door (including us) were straining their ears to try to hear it all.  My favorite part, though, was when the song "How He Loves Us" was played.  At first I thought I was hearing things, but then when I looked up I saw that it was true.  The people in the congregation, albeit quietly, were singing "He loves us, oh how He loves us..." all together.  It was heartbreakingly beautiful.  As if we caught a glimpse of what Charlotte was doing right then. Praising God in His presence.  What a testimony to the Holiness of God and the peace that we find when we trust in His ways.