Our Lord is There

No! No! I thought this couldn't be true it just couldn't. Sadly it was, my brother called asking me if I had "heard the news" and I knew something was wrong. He talked to dad, little while later I found out "the news". A young man had been killed in a tragic farming accident. Leaving his wife of less than 3 years, his baby son. Many things I hear makes me sad. My eyes often fill with tears, but this time I sobbed. For the young wife now a widow caring for her son alone.
This young man like anyone that leaves this earth will not go without leaving a hole. Families around here are large and everyone has many 1st, 2nd, 3rd cousins. There are few that are not affected, he was my 3rd cousin. He was a song leader at the local Mennonite church. The same church where both sides of his families attend. I cannot imagine the grief the church is going through.
I don't need to imagine, nearly the exact some tragedy happened to our church several years ago. Trial of fire it was, the grace of our Lord brought us and the family through.
All of my uncles have been in farming accidents including my father. Several other people we know have also been affected by the dangers of the farming business. My mother has often said she chooses not to think of the "what ifs". Everything is in the sorviun hands of our LORD. Still I cannot but wonder why? Perhaps this is why,

Erwin Lutzer makes the statement in his book Your Eternal Reward, “We want life to be smooth, secure, uninterrupted. God has a different agenda. He is purifying us, testing us, training us so that we might be presented to Him as a pure church, ready to take our place sitting next to Christ on His throne.” That reminds me of another well read author, the Apostle Paul who writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “For our present troubles are quite small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.”