Good comes out of pain and tragedy

I’m one of those people who does not laugh at the so-called funny videos of people falling. I feel physical pain when I see them. Yesterday’s nap and last night’s sleep were violently interrupted by the same vision. Our granddaughter had described to us her horrific fall and every time I shut my eyes, I could see it, and feel her pain, and usually started crying.

This event in our lives has done more than deepen my empathy. This young woman has a most marvelous attitude. She is not angry. There is pain but no complaining. I tend to compete, blame, or judge and she cheerfully corrects my attitudes without making me feel condemned, just gently reminded. Does she know this verse? 

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” (John 12:47–50)

I’m getting a strong example of what it means to be like Jesus. It is as if her recent fall and injuries destroyed selfishness and self-pity and gave her His peace and joy. We marvel at how someone with casts and braces on all four limbs can be this way. Did the fall do it? Is the Father sending her in her brokenness to rebuke me in my thoughtlessness? Whatever else is going on, I’m feeling like the disciples must have felt when Jesus washed their feet:

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (John 13:12–17)

The one time someone did this literally was both humbling and an expression of humility. While my feet were not covered in the stuff of walking barefoot, having them washed has an effect that is difficult to describe, yet it clearly expresses loving care. This is why Jesus said:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35)

In love, we visit and support our broken and bleeding granddaughter. I love, she is behaving in love toward us, her nurses, and even the people who could not fix her phone. She is like the Lord Jesus when He showed no sign of His own needs (He was on the way to the Cross) as He cared for these men who were at that time so oblivious to all else but themselves. Again, all I can say is “only God” and marvel at His grace.

PRAY: Our lives constantly face challenges. This one is huge and multifaceted, giving us an understanding of You that is new, and wonderful, and at the same time almost terrifying. Such power to save, both physically and spiritually. She could easily have died. She could, like most people, be angry at the world, blaming and in misery. Only You can take tragedy and make it good, even amazingly beautiful.