Nov.
20, 2012
Jeremiah
29:11-13
***
“For surely I know the plans I have for
you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a
future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will
hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all
your heart.”
(Jeremiah 29:11-13)
***
The
cellphone ringing disturbed what had begun as a quiet evening at home Thursday
night. The distressed caller was my friend Lisa, our church secretary. Her news
was shocking.
When she told me through her tears that
her brother Shawn had died, I thought at first I had heard wrong. I had met
Shawn at his sister Kelly’s wedding a year ago and knew that he was a young man
with a wife and two young children.
How could anyone have anticipated this sudden,
tragic loss? Shawn at 40 was so full of
life. Years of enjoying 9-year-old Aerial’s and 4-year-old Zandy’s growing up stretched
ahead of him. Now the memory-making time
with his children and wife Sabrina had abruptly come to an end.
On the way to meet his family at the
hospital in Olivia, I prayed—seeking God for their comfort and peace, though I
knew they would be feeling the sharp pain of loss for some time to come. The
pain from losing a husband, father, son, and brother is not quickly or easily
overcome.
I
felt the need to ask others to join me in prayer, so I called a couple in our
church who immediately responded to my request. I prayed, “Lord, let me be the peaceful,
loving presence of Christ for this family,” because I knew it wasn’t me that
they needed. They needed the light of
Christ that pierces the darkness of grief and despair and brings healing to the
brokenhearted.
When a tragedy like this happens in our
small, tight community, everyone feels the loss. So many people knew Shawn and his family. News
of his death traveled quickly and stirred many memories in the community of the
outgoing man who didn’t live quietly.
You
always knew when he was around, and not just because he was large and lived up
to the nickname “Big Daddy” that he didn’t mind at all. His family says that Shawn
lacked a quiet, indoor voice or at least they had never heard it. He was usually laughing, teasing, and joking
around. He was good natured and tolerant
of little Zandy using his stomach as a trampoline, jumping on him while he was relaxing
in his favorite recliner. And he was
just fine with wife Sabrina’s menagerie of creatures—goats, dogs, chickens, and
ducks to name a few. He tended without
complaint the large garden that Sabrina wanted every year, though his interests
were more mechanical. He could drive anything—cars, pickups, and all sorts of
farm machinery. He drove semi-truck for
a living. You may have seen him and his
tanker of liquid sugar. His favorite vehicle was his Harley Davidson Fat Boy,
which fit him and his larger than life personality perfectly—yet somehow he
made it look small.
Greater
than his love of motorized “big boy toys,” though, was his love for his family.
He enjoyed taking them on drives to the river bottom to catch a breathtaking
sunset or discover a new rock for climbing.
He was a fish in the water and taught his girls to swim at Lake Florida.
He didn’t like to eat fish, but he taught the girls how to carefully bait a
fishhook and catch a few. If it meant making people laugh, he didn’t shy away
from painting his face scary for Halloween when he took his kids trick or
treating. He enjoyed just being with his family—playing Candyland, Sorry, or Chutes
and Ladders with the kids or watching the cooking channel to hone his
culinary skills. He was known to whip up
delicious meals and desserts for his family, such as pumpkin pies made from
scratch.
When we experience the loss of someone we
love, we may also experience a test of our faith. We feel sorrow, but we also may feel confused
or angry that a loving God would allow such a tragedy to happen. Why didn’t God
spare the life of a 40-year old man who had so much more living to do? Some may doubt that such a God is loving at
all.
But in our darkest times, we mustn’t turn
away from the One who can heal and comfort us. God loved us so much He was
willing to give up His only Son so that we may be forgiven of our sins and live
with Him for all eternity in heaven. Christ beckons us to come to Him not just
when we are happy and satisfied but when we feel broken, angry, and empty. He
longs to comfort us, fill our emptiness with His refreshing Spirit, and restore
us to wholeness.
God reminds us in His Word that He has
always been faithful to His children, though His children have not always been
faithful to Him. He sent His prophet Jeremiah to speak to the Israelites when
they were suffering in exile from their Holy City long ago. They questioned God’s love and wondered if God
was still with them when He allowed the Babylonians to crush their city,
destroy their temple, and kill many of their own in 587 B.C.
The children of God experienced a great
test of their faith when they were deported to Babylon and their lives as they
knew them were drastically changed. Some of the Israelites responded
by turning their back on God and worshiping idols, instead.
Jeremiah in chapter 29 reminds us that God
is still with us in our darkest times, when we begin to doubt His love for us
and our hope in Him, when we wonder if our mourning will ever turn to joy.
He
assures us that He has plans for us. He
says “surely I know them.” And the plans are for our welfare and not for our
harm.
He assures us there will be a future with
hope.
Come and seek me, says the Lord to us now.
Call upon me and pray to me, and I will
hear you.
When you search for me, you will find me,
if you seek me with all your heart.
Let us pray.
Lord, come to us in our brokenness and
confusion and make your presence known to us.
We seek you now with all our hearts knowing that you will accept and
receive us just as we are. We draw
nearer to you knowing your loving arms are waiting to take us into your
embrace. Comfort all who grieve the loss of loved ones. Help them, Lord, to
accept and receive your love. Reassure
them your love never ends and you will always be faithful to your promises to
us. Reassure us, when we are sad,
lonely, or depressed, that you have a future planned for each one of us, a
future with hope. In Christ we
pray. Amen.
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