I read a couple of posts yesterday about two families who are in the throes of sorrow. One is from the death of a baby at the end of a long illness, the other from a young mother who is, unless God intervenes, at the end of her battle with leukemia. I know what it’s like to endure the death of your precious baby. To define it as anguish isn’t remotely adequate.

The young mom loves God wholeheartedly, and is ready for heaven. Her sorrow is leaving her husband and baby with broken hearts and the sorrow of life without her. Last night lying in bed, I prayed for them, sorrowed for them. And I was frustrated and complaining to God about the inequity of life. I know other young wives who are forsaking God, their husbands and the families who love them, one to pursue a life of alcohol, drugs and promiscuity, the others, other men. They are healthy.

If I were God, I’d trade circumstances between them. If someone has to be dying of leukemia, I’d give it to a friend who is sinning boldly and without conscience. Perhaps ensuing death might, like the prodigal, bring her to her senses, to repentance and to God. I’d give health to the young mother, and long years to love her husband and child and to love and serve God with them.

But I don’t get to call the shots, and the circumstances, so far, remain as they are. My Job-like complaint demands an answer, and like Job, I am put in my place. The question is not “why are these things happening?” but, as God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” Who do you think you are to question me? And like Job, I put my hand over my mouth and am silent. God is God. He is sovereign. He is good. I trust what he is doing in the sorrowing parents, the sorrowing families. I trust what he is doing in my friend and all who love her. It doesn’t negate the sorrow, but in it there is everlasting comfort. We mourn, but we don’t mourn without hope.

I pray for these families, and ask you to join me. I pray that God will comfort the grieving parents, that God may yet raise both young women to health and wholeness, one physical; one spiritual, so that they both may live to his glory. One thing I know for certain: “For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving; abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Give ear, O Lord to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God” Psalm 86:5-10.