Giving a good account
Yesterday was a very sad day at church.
Last Sunday we heard that we cannot put God in a box as we looked at the passage in the Book of Samuel and the way the Ark of the Covenant was treated and feared.
The congregation was bowed by the news of a serious house fire that left one of our church leaders and his wife (a paediatrician) in ICU.
Later that day we learned the news that Ben, a Microsoft engineer, had been called home. Smoke inhalation had led to cardiac arrest. And the young man who first came to our church 11 years ago, spent Christmas with us, gone away, come back, got married, had children, was now back in the arms of Jesus.
Yesterday was the first day back at church together for many of us.
There was such an outpouring of grief. Ben was special. Ben was much loved.
I spent time with his mum last Friday.
O, how we cried.
"Why? Why? Why did God take him at the prime of his life? Why did He not take me instead?" Ben's mum cried.
We will never understand. I could, and can, only feel the pain of a mother's heart.
Ben was her miracle baby. He grew up so well, so strong, so tall. (We called him "Big Ben". He kept walking into the light fixture in the middle of our sitting room.)
Most of all, he grew up strong in the knowledge of his loving heavenly Father despite ... despite his own father's irresponsible ways.
What mother wishes to say "goodbye" to a child like this? The child whose flesh and bones were knit in her very own body?
But why the grief from all those who had the privilege of knowing Ben, even for just a little while?
Because he was special. Because he was much loved. Because people only have good things to say about him.
And I am sure, this boy-young-man-husband-father who did not have a bad bone within him, would be able to give a good account of his own life when we come before God's throne.
Rest in peace, brother Ben. We will keep an eye on the wife and the two little girls you left behind.
Rest in peace.
Tributes paid to Santosh Benjamin-Muthiah who died in Wealdstone fire
See also follow-up post
Last Sunday we heard that we cannot put God in a box as we looked at the passage in the Book of Samuel and the way the Ark of the Covenant was treated and feared.
The congregation was bowed by the news of a serious house fire that left one of our church leaders and his wife (a paediatrician) in ICU.
Later that day we learned the news that Ben, a Microsoft engineer, had been called home. Smoke inhalation had led to cardiac arrest. And the young man who first came to our church 11 years ago, spent Christmas with us, gone away, come back, got married, had children, was now back in the arms of Jesus.
Yesterday was the first day back at church together for many of us.
There was such an outpouring of grief. Ben was special. Ben was much loved.
I spent time with his mum last Friday.
O, how we cried.
"Why? Why? Why did God take him at the prime of his life? Why did He not take me instead?" Ben's mum cried.
We will never understand. I could, and can, only feel the pain of a mother's heart.
Ben was her miracle baby. He grew up so well, so strong, so tall. (We called him "Big Ben". He kept walking into the light fixture in the middle of our sitting room.)
Most of all, he grew up strong in the knowledge of his loving heavenly Father despite ... despite his own father's irresponsible ways.
What mother wishes to say "goodbye" to a child like this? The child whose flesh and bones were knit in her very own body?
But why the grief from all those who had the privilege of knowing Ben, even for just a little while?
Because he was special. Because he was much loved. Because people only have good things to say about him.
And I am sure, this boy-young-man-husband-father who did not have a bad bone within him, would be able to give a good account of his own life when we come before God's throne.
Rest in peace, brother Ben. We will keep an eye on the wife and the two little girls you left behind.
Rest in peace.
Tributes paid to Santosh Benjamin-Muthiah who died in Wealdstone fire
See also follow-up post
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