The Glorious Gain in Earthly Loss

I wanted to ask you to pray for a friend of ours who has lost her mother in a traffic accident. Pray that God would fill her with courage and strength, and surround her with His arms of love. Also pray for her family as they go through these tough times. The woman that was killed was a christian, and so as with the death of any Christian, we can understand that the presence of God in Heaven is far greater than the trappings of this world. And, although she will be missed her on earth, she will live together with God in paradise. Every Christian can take hope in heaven, because as the scripture says “to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)”

In saying that I also want to mention how encouraged that I have been from an email that they sent me. They asked for prayer for two different people. The first, our friend’s dad, who lost his wife. And second, for the person who hit and killed the mother. Apparently this man just lost his wife tragically in the past month and returned to his night shift job for the first time the other night. That morning as he was driving home, he fell asleep at the wheel and hit our friend’s mother. The email went into further detail about how this woman would have given her life so that God could reach a lost soul.

The man who hit her is lost, and obviously in a worse state than any of us have ever been. Could you imagine the pain of loosing your wife and then the guilt of being responsible for the death of someone else’s wife? I could not image a harder thing, or a darker place of hopelessness. But, as I read the email that I got from our friend, tears came to my eyes when I read that the family plans on meeting and talking with this man about the hope of Christ. In the midst of their pain they understand that there is a soul at stake and that there will never be a better chance to witness to this man about the compassion of Christ. Please pray that God would give them the strength that they need in this situation. And pray that if any one of us were in a situation like this that God would give us the same grace that He has given to this family.