Comfort for Street Weepers

I didn't post yesterday because my heart is heavy...

On Friday afternoon, a dear friend of my son was on her way to pick him up from our house. She had her sister and a friend with her too.They were going to grab a bite to eat and go do something fun the girls had planned. She had just called to say she was nearly there, so he stood outside and waited.

When we heard the sirens, it didn't even occur to us that it could be for them.

But it was. When the girls failed to arrive forty minutes later, my son knew something wasn't right. So we ran down the street to find the wreckage, just at the end of our street. Two smashed cars in a ditch and a broken telephone pole. All involved already in route to hospital by ambulance.

The damage didn't look survivable. When I saw the fall out of the wreck, I wept on that street like a child who was lost. My sobs rang out and echoed off the pavement. My own son had to be the adult, gathering information and consoling his mother.

But God is good, all the time.

Everyone survived. Two of the girls have major bumps and bruises and will need lots of recovery time. The driver, my son's dear friend, is still in the hospital, beginning the healing process of a broken pelvis, broken ribs and a collapsed lung. But she is alive!

Life is fragile... "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.... he hears us...We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true - even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life."  (1 John 5: 14, 20-21)

Even in the face of all the things we wish we could have done, or should have done, or would have done, if we could do it all over again, we must remember this: it is only God who gives understanding. This is a merciful gift. He does not give the knowledge to rely on ourselves and avoid the trials in life. But He gives us understanding that we might know Him, who is the Truth, and cling to Him without hesitation, while the trial passes through. He is the One who picks us up while we are weeping in the street, cares intimately for our heavy hearts, and gives comfort that is strong and lasting. He is the true God. 

The Lord preserved the lives of those three precious young women on Friday afternoon. May this moment draw them, and their families and friends, and my son, and me... always to the understanding of Christ and His amazing love. Amen.