This past week there have been losses so large and so near to people I know that I’ve been reminded again of the transitory nature of life on earth. It’s a puff of smoke, a vapor. It’s here one moment and gone so suddenly it makes our minds reel. Death– always a mystery.

The first tragedy was the drowning of a counselor and a camper at the summer youth camp our church participates in. Both young men, one 26 and the other 15 slipped on rocks and fell into a pool beneath a waterfall where they drowned in spite of efforts to rescue them. The second was the death of a friend’s son in a motorcycle accident. All three were alive and well and enjoying life one moment, gone the next.

There is something obscene about a child dying before his or her parents. It goes against the natural order we expect and shocks our sensibilities. Though death at any age carries pain, when young people die there is a sense of betrayal. All that should be, the normal steps from birth to youth to adulthood, the stages of maturity, the joys of marriage, parenting and grandparenting, all of those forfeited to an early death.

The inescapable conclusion we reach after working through initial shock and grief is that life is elusive, uncertain. But if we take a further step, in the light of the knowledge of an eternal plane, we come to acceptance and a kind of stark joy. In spite of the heaviness and pain of our loss, there’s a realization that we’re not in charge. There is God who knows and loves and redeems our pain.

My heart goes out to those whose grief is still fresh and raw. I know they’re going to bed each night with bruised and heavy hearts and awaking each morning to the new reality– their child, their friend, is gone. Suffering produces fruit beyond our understanding. My prayer for each of those now deep in grief is that they would soak up all the love of friends and family, reach up to grasp the comfort God has for them, and step into a place of rest while they heal.