Our family could really use your prayers
Yesterday, my cousin's only son, Garrison Herzinger, was killed in a vehicle rollover accident at training camp while preparing for the US Marines. My uncle, his grandpa, is a retired marine, yet the family still felt apprehension about Garrison entering the military. This is a devastating blow. Please pray for my Cousin Gena and her husband Jeff. Aunt Dena (Grandma), Uncle Gene (Grandpa), and little sister to Garrison, Tesla. They live in Idaho.
I cannot fathom their pain.
Thank you for taking a minute to pray for them.
I have a quote by Billy Graham that says, "The death of the righteous is no accident. Do you think that the God whose watchful vigil notes the sparrow's fall and who knows the number of hairs on our heads would turn His back on one of His children in the hour of peril?"
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. Romans 14:8
How do you interpret this quote and scripture? If the death of the righteous is no accident, does that mean that the Lord causes it to happen for a certain reason or purpose? I've always thought and been taught that to think that God is the one who "takes" us and causes death is wrong, and that He sometimes does, but death is a natural result of the Fall of man. Billy G's quote makes me rethink this, because I know many times God spares His people from death, but others He allows to die, or causes it (as it is "no accident")? So how does He choose? I mean I can understand taking my Grandmother who had lived a full life- but a young boy just leaving home to start his own life? I know the answer is that God's ways are higher than man's, and we can't always understand His decisions. It's just something I'm struggling with today.
Any help, clarity , or insights would be great.
4 comments:
Oh. how tragic Ang. I have prayed just now.
About your questions (and this may not be the time/place for me to attempt to ponder, but you did ask us):
I don't think that "unto the Lord" in that verse means that God is controlling whathappens in an individuals life or the way that they die. Generally I do not think of God as being a "micro-manager." He cares for us, but he does not preveniently control what happens in our lives...we do have free will and personhood afterall.
I tend to agree with AP, in that what happens in life is contained in Time and that time is contained within the parameters of God's power. So whatever happens in life, God knows about, but does not necessarily DO anything about immediately, because he knowns the whole picture, and how it all will come to fruition. So, God is still Sovereign, but chooses, for whatever reason, to not be a micro manager of individual human lives most of the time.
It really stinks though, to come to that realization, that God knows the hairs on my head but He may not stop me from getting cancer and losing those hairs. And if I were to get cancer, it would not be proof that God didn't love me....just that I live in a fallen deadly world, and the only massive intervention that can conquer it (and has) is faith in the (already) Risen One, and in His (already and not yet) Kingdom Come....
God is bigger than the crap that happens, but doesn't usually stop the crap that happens (only in rare instances--which are the Bible stories we focus on for better or worse).
I fear that I am coming across as a pat-answer-quasi-academic type here....and that is not my intent.
I wish there were black and white answers in times of tragic death, at the time when we most need "clear" reasons.
Accidents happen. Terrible accidents happen. Many, many, horrible things happen in the world. It just really sucks when it happens to someone you love.
:(
I am sorry for your family's loss.
Thanks Jo for your thoughts.My dad had a really good perspective on it today, in that God does not view death in the same way we do. He does not view the death of a righteous as a bad thing. And until we die, our understanding of death and the eternal is limited. Therefore many times, God is not "allowing" a bad thing to happen, but completing a good thing.
I think what your dad says fits inside the parameters of what I was trying to say; I think I agree with him.
My name is chaplain Ron J. Kennedy, I am Garrison's Battalion Chaplain. He will be greatly missed--he was a great Marine and with a wonderful sense of humor (he could always make us laugh). Our battalion will have a memorial service for Garrison soon. Your family will be in my thoughts and prayers.
Very Respectfully,
LT Ron J. Kennedy, CHC, USN
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