Lately, I feel I've been surrounded by death. And it's certainly not the first time, nor is it the first time I've experienced death at a young age. As I entered into ministering and befriending people in the inner-city of Houston and Honduras, I knew I would likely experience a tragedy. There's nothing that can prepare anyone for this. Death, this time, feels different. This time it's way too personal. Yet there are some things that give me solace, specifically a song.
Dealing with my grandmother's death was doable, even the face of dealing with a difficult tonsillectomy. I've had a lot of peace in her passing due to her long suffering from Alzheimer's. It was hard to see many in my family, who did know her really well, upset at the funeral; in fact, it was the first time I had see some of them cry. What I wasn't prepared for came next.
Some of you may know I went to Honduras last Christmas, and was able to participate in Christmas celebration with Breaking Chains Homeless Ministry (where my girlfriend works) on a beach island in the Pacific. This celebration required 40 or so sponsors. I decided to sponsor 17 year old, Jose de la Cruz, whose story you can read here: http://livingoutmyfaith.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/in-need-of-healing/. I'll never forget the joy I saw in his face as he opened his presents and got new shoes. I'll never understand how powerful and right that moment on that beach felt, and the gratefulness he showed to me.
I'll also never forget the moment I was told that he and another BC Honduras boy had been shot to death Sunday night. The punch in the stomach it was, and the way life felt so unfair. I must begin to heal at some point, but his young death is not right, it's not how his story should end. And because of that fact, I find peace in this song.
1 Thess. 4:16-For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
