life perspective.

What do we say in the face of such specific tragedy? There are no words. What could we possibly say to ease a pain so severe that it makes one go numb?

"Rest in peace"...but what does that even mean? Are rest and peace not interdependent?

"She's with God now"...what difference does it make where she is if she's not here? We want her to be here.

"I'm sorry"...surely we're all sorry. But sorry is meaningless in tragedy complete and outside of our control. It offers nothing if it is only a word and not accompanied by action.

To imagine what her life would have been like, what causality could result in such heavy hopelessness, and what possibly could have prevented it is far too much to imagine and carry. Yet one can't help to stop at the intersection of "why?" and "what if?" So how do we respond?

Perhaps the question isn't 'what do we say?' but rather, 'how do we listen' and as a result, 'how do we respond'?

We pray. Hard.
We mourn over this visible fracture in the universe.
We mourn over their unimaginable grief.
We make ourselves intentionally available.
And we are reminded why we do what we do.

Surely, we cannot fix or ease anything. We can offer no solution to grief. That is not the intention. This should not be our response. A loss as this is much too personal and heavy for us to offer anything acceptable other than ourselves.

I have no ounce of doubt that her salvation was broken; it wasn't. For you cannot sin your way out of God's love. His sacrifice already paid for this. Surely, Jesus Himself wept over this, for she was and still is His beloved. In the midst of this tragedy, there is hope, though understandably difficult to see through the fog of grief. It's okay to see no redemption in this right now. But assuredly, it is there.

Hope remains. Healing is real.

We cannot expect any certain behavior or belief from the family. But what we can expect, and I do expect, is a response from the body of Christ. We mourn together. When one part of the body hurts, we are all affected. When one part mourns, we mourn with it. Yet somehow, we rejoice. We rejoice that now the tears she cries are only from blissful and uncontainable joy.

I bet she's dancing.