A Time of Mourning

Monday morning as we headed back from a wonderfully relaxing weekend of camping, I was plotting a blog to share some of the more entertaining moments and photos from this time spent with great friends and dogs. Then my cell phone rang, and the news it brought wiped out every other thought from my mind and heart.

Those of you who don't know Courtney Ayer have probably read the newspaper stories about the death of her 2-year-old son Dylan in a tragic accident Monday morning. Their family attended our church for several years before departing with the group last fall to start our sister church, the Grove, in North Albany. In a church of 500+ people, you just don't get to know everyone, and I didn't have the good fortune to meet her until just a few months ago at the first retreat planning meeting. By the time it was over, I was greatly looking forward to getting to know her better in the coming meetings. What personality! What a great sense of humor! What a giving, helping, caring person! I really missed out by not making her acquaintance sooner.

Later a meeting was held at her house, and when I called her for directions, to our amusement we learned that we live in the same neighborhood! In the winter I can see her house through the trees. It was a delight to visit her home, a comfortable and fun place for her two little boys to play. I enjoyed watching them romp around like my little boys used to. She obviously adores them and frequently shared funny stories about them. I can relate to that.

But on Monday, a parent's worst nightmare happened in an instant, and the world will never be the same.

When something like this happens to a friend, we feel so helpless and want so badly to do something, anything, to help. I knew that they had family and close friends with them, and I prayed for them all day with a heavy heart.

That evening I joined a group of about 30 people from the Grove at a home to pray for their family. The shock, pain and grief felt by these friends who love them is enormous, but I imagine it's only a small reflection of the agony Dylan's family is going through. It was a privilege to join in the heartfelt prayers, the tears and the hugs that were shared. What a blessing to know this amazing group of people who love Jesus are supporting, loving and caring for this grieving family.

I still can't even grasp the horror and anguish of suddenly losing a beloved child. I don't know how one resumes the routine of life when it has been savagely ripped apart. I don't know how to help my friend and her family. I wish we would all wake up and find out it was just a horrible nightmare.

I do know that I dearly love my friend Courtney and her family, that I weep with them and hold them up in prayer. I know that the only way to get through something like this is to cling to God, the God who tells us he is the God of all comfort, who comforts us as a mother comforts her children.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (NIV) "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows."

I pray that Courtney and her family will feel the overflowing comfort of Christ in this time of mourning.

When I was 14 years old, my mother went home to be with Jesus. I remember being angry with people who reminded me how wonderful it was that I would see her again in heaven some day. At the time, I just wanted her in the here and now. But as the raw edge of the fresh grief softened with time, the hope of a fantastic future with Him and our loved ones who have gone before us became a great comfort.

Revelation 21:4 "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

Some day.