Safely Home

The Stauffer family is on my mind. How can anyone suffer the loss of a child? How does the Lord comfort this family? The tragedy is a high profile news story. Condolences are coming to them from all over the world, but what about condolences from heaven?

We might say that God knows what it is like to lose His Son. He understands their pain. Yet God planned the death of His Son, and I am positive the Stauffer’s did not plan or even imagine the death of their daughter.

This morning I read Hebrews 4:15. It says, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Rather than try to imagine the temptations Jesus faced, I can imagine some of what a family struggles with when their loss is so devastating. For one thing, I would be tempted to say, “Where were you, God, when my child needed You?” I would be tempted to think that God was not there, or that He didn’t care, or that He was powerless to help.

My head, and certainly the Bible, says otherwise. My faith, and the faith of the Stauffer family, also tells me that this life is not all there is, that Emily and all who believe in Jesus will spend eternity with Jesus. Some go sooner, some later, but this is our destiny. In the meantime, we live here as ambassadors for our actual home, sometimes enduring great trials because of living in this place.

Jesus was God’s greatest ambassador and more. He came here with one mission in mind, to die for us. He came to receive the wrath of God for our sin so that we might be forgiven. How did He, humanly speaking, manage to do it?

Hebrews 12:2 says that He, “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus knew the last chapter in His story and that was His focus. He endured.

We too, for the joy set before us, endure. It is in knowing this life is a mere whisper compared to the eternal bliss that is ours that keeps us going. I’m certain that the family in Edson whose daughter was murdered endures because they know they will see her again. They will laugh with her and rejoice at the feet of Jesus. They will do this because Jesus did it. He didn’t give in to despair or the temptation to just bail out. While He did say, “Let this cup pass from me,” He also said, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” This is the stuff of endurance.

Whatever tempts the child of God, Jesus knows all about it. He is intimately acquainted with our struggles. He was here. He endured. He knew that this life is not all there is, that eternal joy awaits those who trust in God.

One verse in Revelation speaks of great testing in a future time and how God’s people will respond. Chapter 14, verse 12 says, “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

We who know Jesus and also know great sorrow and trials can survive. We hang on to what God tells us and we cling to the One who is our endurance. He will bring each of out of this sin-sick world and take us safely home. We mourn those whose departure seems much too soon, yet we know, I know, that I will see Jesus face to face, and also Emily.