Price paid

Yesterday the BRICC family went to pay condolence visits to two people whose mothers had recently died.  One was Saddiq, the education co-ordinator, the other an older man who was a talented footballer in his youth and now helps with the sports programmes.  Nearly a dozen of us walked from the BRICC office the short distance to Saddiq's house, Christians and Muslims together in family feeling in the face of death.  We sat for a while in his living room as several people gave messages of consolation and the love that flowed between this group of very disparate backgrounds was obvious.

We had only been in Nigeria for six months when several people I knew and cared about died in the UK.  With each death a piece of self also dies and a dark yearning emptiness takes its place as we experience the devastation that was never supposed to be part of humanity's story.  Sometimes we are given glimpses into the heart of God.  These can be exciting, exhilerating uplifting experiences or they can be times when the pain and sorrow of this spoiled world almost overwhelms us.  It isn't that God doesn't care when loved ones die; his love conquers all things and he has provided a solution to the agonising consequences of death - Jesus.  There is comfort in the knowledge that death is not the end and we will meet our Christian brothers and sisters again, although even that temporary parting is painful enough.

I got to this paragraph in my daily reading this morning:

We do not understand the mystery of why God allows tragedy, heartache and sorrow but we do know that those who trust the eternal God as their refuge will experience the reality of his promise that "underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27).

Jesus never promised his followers a life without pain but he did promise he would never leave us to make our way through without his help and support.

The heart of Christianity is love - Jesus' love for us, our love for him and for those who would otherwise be lost for ever. There are too many people who, if they were to die tomorrow would face eternal desolation, yet all that is necessary to defeat death is to accept that Jesus on the cross has beaten it and to follow him.  Perhaps it's too simple but the entrance fee to a glorious eternity has been paid, we just have to accept the ticket.