A week ago today, a fine man, one that I taught in the second year of my junior high teaching career, passed away suddenly. He left a wife and two children. I've not had much contact with him in recent years, but when he and his brother were in junior high and high school, his parents and family were very kind to me in many ways, including having me in their home several times. One of the plates in my fine china set is from them. I saw his parents just last summer at another funeral.
Another fine man, also in my classes that year, a close friend of the man who died, wrote an essay here, that is outstanding in attempting to digest such a loss.
This was a very thought-provoking part of his blog post:
"Oh yes, there is also the promise that our God is in the heavens doing whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3). And this, as much as it troubles us, was pleasing to God or He wouldn’t have done it.
"Yes, yes, He is the one who did it. And I think my friend would agree with me. Especially now.
"While that is unsettling for some, if I thought for one minute that God was up in heaven earnestly desiring to hold back the powers of death from His child, my friend, but ultimately unable to, I would never preach again. I would have nothing good to say about a God who is so loving as to not want people to die a physical death, but so impotent as to be unable to stop it. What assurance can such impotence give of a future resurrection and hope? That would be a God unworthy of the very lives we wish to preserve."
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