http://www.boomerinthepew.com/2010/01/esv-study-bible-series-we-are-three-days-from-hearing-gods-reply-to-jobs-pleading.html#comment-6a00e55043abd088340120a7cce647970b
What follows is a comment on a friend's blog on Job - see link above.
In 10 days' time, it will 4 years since that early morning our family stood around Michael's bed at the very time Jesus fetched him to be with Him.
As we read the Job chapters, as we look around us, we realise afresh that suffering is varied and painfully widespread. So........we realise that our pain is no exception, there is worse suffering, etc etc. It is not about blogging just our story, it is about seeing how our God works in our lives and it is about having tender hearts for one another and about honouring those we loved and about honouring our Lord Who gave them to us. We would love this to be about the Lord our Rock, Who has made the most amazing promises that are sure to be fulfilled: in the present and in the future.
Gordon and Michael 1st January 2006
While reading Job, we have in mind Michael and our family's "big suffering": Michael's death and remember that Job lost 10 children and his wealth, health, identity and reputation. Why? Why? Why did Michael's chromosomes 11 a nd 22 switch before birth? Why did our strong, hard-working, surfing, life-loving son get Ewings Sarcoma when he was 25? Why did he have to suffer through 14 lots of aggressive chemo (5 hospitalised days every third week) and radio treatment in vain? Why did he have to suffer and die? Why did we have to go through witnessing him dying before our very eyes in the last 3 months of his life?
Without going into the details here, we can testify that God in His Word has truly given us ample and sufficient information about suffering. Of course there is mystery which is part of the answers. Of course, humanly speaking, we just want our boy back - now!
Please, please it is NOT as if we have arrived and there is now nothing more to learn - to the contrary. We desparately need our God's grace - and, by His grace and in Jesus - it is ours!
But as to these why-questions about our Michael, after wrestling and reading and listenig - we can honestly say that we are not asking them anymore. We are at rest and at peace. And this is good - so we can invest our energies in being in awe of God etc etc etc.
We all find ourselves at different stages of our journeys, but we can't think that it is a good thing to get STUCK in the why questions forever. Of course, it is not as if the pain is all gone and our personal life carries on as if nothing has happened. But it is a case of resting in your and our Sovereign and simultaneously very, very Good God! He is gracious and He is worthy!
I'm sure we all know that if He had to deal with us - outside of Jesus Christ - we would have been infinitely worse off!
