Posted in General Parenting
You know, we really don't get it. We grind away at our lives day after day and we think about how hard our lives are. We think about the laundry, the stains in the carpet, the things that need fixing or the shoes that are always being out-grown.
We never suspect that something may be coming that turns our lives upside down in an instant. It could be a lay-off or a burglary or it could be something like what happened to my friend Kevin yesterday.
He called me yesterday early in the morning to ask me to pray for his little girl. She had stopped breathing for ten minutes and had no pulse. They were putting her on a helicopter for a flight to the hospital. By the time I got to the hospital, his little girl had been pronounced dead. Going into the emergency room, I found him with her and held onto him while he sat there with her body.
What do you do when a friend suffers a horrendous loss? Where do you begin to pick up the pieces? How do you support someone who just had their world ripped out from under them? There are no words for those moments. You sit there. You pray. You hold them while they face the most unimaginable pain they could ever face. And you wish with all your might you could do something to take that pain away. But the pain is relentless, and it pushes onward into a grief that shrouds everything. It doesn't go away. It simply ebbs and flows and spills over in waves like a storm over a sea wall. You gather your strength just so you can cry some more.
Monday, their life was fine. Kevin worked. His wife taught homeschool to her daughter and looked after her son. Tuesday, their life was halted. They discussed funeral plans and how to care for the body of their beloved daughter. There was nothing they could do to reduce their loss. Their daughter was gone. At the drop of a hat, she was gone.
Be thankful for soiled diapers and unfinished vegetables. Be grateful for overflowing hampers and socks that seem to disappear. Be glad for the curriculum and braces that you need to purchase. But most importantly, rejoice in every moment you have with your son or daughter.
Please pray for Kevin and his family in these coming weeks. Their loss is extreme and their grief is overwhelming. Please also pray for my family, especially my son who was very close to Kevin's daughter.
Further posts:
We never suspect that something may be coming that turns our lives upside down in an instant. It could be a lay-off or a burglary or it could be something like what happened to my friend Kevin yesterday.
He called me yesterday early in the morning to ask me to pray for his little girl. She had stopped breathing for ten minutes and had no pulse. They were putting her on a helicopter for a flight to the hospital. By the time I got to the hospital, his little girl had been pronounced dead. Going into the emergency room, I found him with her and held onto him while he sat there with her body.
What do you do when a friend suffers a horrendous loss? Where do you begin to pick up the pieces? How do you support someone who just had their world ripped out from under them? There are no words for those moments. You sit there. You pray. You hold them while they face the most unimaginable pain they could ever face. And you wish with all your might you could do something to take that pain away. But the pain is relentless, and it pushes onward into a grief that shrouds everything. It doesn't go away. It simply ebbs and flows and spills over in waves like a storm over a sea wall. You gather your strength just so you can cry some more.
Monday, their life was fine. Kevin worked. His wife taught homeschool to her daughter and looked after her son. Tuesday, their life was halted. They discussed funeral plans and how to care for the body of their beloved daughter. There was nothing they could do to reduce their loss. Their daughter was gone. At the drop of a hat, she was gone.
Be thankful for soiled diapers and unfinished vegetables. Be grateful for overflowing hampers and socks that seem to disappear. Be glad for the curriculum and braces that you need to purchase. But most importantly, rejoice in every moment you have with your son or daughter.
Please pray for Kevin and his family in these coming weeks. Their loss is extreme and their grief is overwhelming. Please also pray for my family, especially my son who was very close to Kevin's daughter.
Further posts:
Posted by 
