We were sitting around the living room visiting with my parents when the phone call came that my niece by marriage had just given birth to a still born son. I immediately excused myself and fell on my face before God. I pleaded with him to raise this child from the dead, but to no avail. My heart was broken for the child’s parents.
At another time, my husband and I were watching television in the evening when we received a call that my nephew had been killed in a motorcycle accident. He was wearing a helmet, but when someone forced him off the road he hit a tree and was killed instantaneously. He was just 21 years old.
It is hard to imagine the pain of losing a child unless you have experienced it. My empathy for these parents was nothing compared to their personal pain. There was a man in the Bible who suffered that same heart break. He lived during the time that Jesus was on earth and knew the Christ was his only hope. Quickly he went to him. Listen to his faith.
“My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.”
Our lives are in the hands of God. He can raise the dead or allow us to die suddenly. Each of our days are preordained by him (Psalm 139:16). We ask, he chooses how to answer (Psalm 5:3; Proverbs 16:9; Philippians 4:6). The important thing is that we ask because the asking shows our faith (Mathew 8:5-10).
