Passing Through Deep Waters

Hey, Y'all,

Got some very sad news today: my friend Tim lost his father very suddenly and unexpectedly after a surgical procedure yesterday. Now, you've gotta understand, Tim and I (and our families) go way back (4th grade as a matter of fact), so it's a little stunning to have years of fond memories rendered suddenly, shockingly bittersweet by the passing of Tom--Mr. Peters, that is :-), he of the sly, quick wit and undisputed master-engineer of killer pizzas (funny, the first things that spring to mind, eh?); Tim and Vicki's dad; Joyce's husband; our family's friend.

Death touches us all, and as time marches inexorably on it seems to sting a little more, to be a little less abstract, a lot more personal. Just a few months ago I was bemoaning with my friend Amanda (who'd also just lost her father very suddenly) how painfully ironic it is that all of the elegant treatises, all the well-reasoned arguments we've read and heard and embraced in sunnier times, leave us cold now, utterly hollow and devoid of meaning . It's no wonder that you hear the same phrase on a thousand lips: "I don't know what to say." What's worse, it's true: what is there to say in the face of such loss?

Funny too how the first passage that literally leaps out at me doesn't promise relief from the pain. Nope. This passage doesn't even begin to fix the problem--nothing this side of heaven can--but what it does do is reassure us that our God is very aware of our pain, that He cares deeply for us, and He gives His word that He is never, ever going to leave our side as we patiently endure and pass through these excruciatingly difficult times, as we must.

I suppose that's why this text (Isaiah 43:2) is always the first one I reach for (almost frantically, I realize) while my mind recoils from and tries desperately to come to grips with this profound a loss. I think it's indelibly engraved in my head and heart because when we hurt we want loved ones nearby--what they say or fail to say is completely immaterial; we just want them close by.

"When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not consume you."

I AM with you . And in the verses immediately preceding and following it reads: "This is what The Lord says, He who created you, He who formed you...For I am your God, your Savior." I will be with you.

That's the kind of God we need. And that's the kind of God we have. A God who, knowing full well what He was about to do, was nevertheless moved to tears at the scene of grief surrounding the death of His friend Lazarus. So Tim, Vicki, Joyce (can't tell you how hard it is to not call you Mrs. Peters :-), grandkids, family: words fail abjectly; I too join the chorus of, "I'm so, so sorry...I don't know what else to say." Other than to tell you that it's to that God, our God, that you're being prayed for, by many, and that earnestly.