Making Sense

The analogy of God as a father becomes ever so much clearer after you are a parent. Each day I see the Fatherhood of God in my fatherhood of my sons and daughter. You want so badly to protect them from the world and its hurts. Its dangers. And so with God.

How do you explain an untimely death? How can you reason that good people die and evil people live? There's comfort knowing he's in heaven, but how could God let this happen?

And I guess it all comes down to choices. Free will is a wonderful blessing and a terrible burden all at once. And God created us with free will. We choose to love. We choose to worship. Or not. And we choose our paths in life. And maybe a child's split second choice darts them into traffic before you can grab them. We either pay or benefit from our choices depending upon which way we go.

It's not God's fault that bad things happen to us. And it's unrealistic to expect we'd be protected from every reaction to our actions. Yes, God protects us and holds us and he loves us more than we can understand. Even after experiencing the love we have for our children, we can't begin to fathom. And he let's us choose.

A choice. A life cut short. A soul in heaven and a host of those left behind in sorrow. Wondering how this can be. Wishing it weren't true. Hoping for that call saying it was a mistake. Curled up in bed, wanting the escape of sleep, knowing you'll never see your best friend again in this life. Thinking over and over in your mind of the choices you've made and the single devastating choice of one you love.

Pray for my son and the family of his friend. A choice. A life cut short. We can only pray for those left behind.