Why?

James 4:9-10 – Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (NIV)

Some time ago, I saw something in the Daily Our Readers Respond section that read like this: "I am currently working with a family that just lost their young mother. Her father keeps asking, 'Why?' I have to tell him I just don't know."

Have you ever experienced a time in your own life like that? We lose a loved one and we ask, "Why?" "Why, Lord? Why?"

I had just such a personal experience when I was fourteen years old. My dad became very ill. He slowly decayed, physically, into a bed-ridden nothing. After two and a half years of torturous pain, this frail hulk of a once bustling, cheerful husband and dad died. My dad was taken home to be with the Lord, peace at last for him. I was seventeen, and I can't say that I had that peace, when I lost dad.

I have gone through many things in my life since that time, but this left such an impression — today as I write about it, it still brings tears to my eyes.

Perhaps it was my young age, just as it is for the family mentioned above.

This young person was a mother, and a wife to her husband, and a daughter to her dad, who is asking, "Why?"

It's hard. Circumstances are all different. I have a friend who lost her two grandchildren; they were killed by their father. What a waste. Why?

In order to lift up our spirits, we have to take the time to mourn, to ask "Why?" We trust in God, for he is the great architect of the world. We are, each one of us, His children. We are all loaned to each other, and when God, for whatever reason, calls one of us home, we must go. Those who are left behind must trust in Him and pray for peace and strength to carry on, till our life is spent and He calls us home. Why? Because He holds all the answers and holds each one of us in His everlasting arms.

Prayer: Father in heaven, hold Your sorrowing children tightly in Your arms, until one day, when all will be revealed to us. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

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