Like a Phoenix

I don't know all there is to know about birds, in fact I really don't know much about them at all but one phrase consistently connected with the Phoenix is that it "rises from the ashes." In some ways I think it could be an appropriate image to consider as we move forward from the tragic events of this week. Some of the youth at our church were involved in an accident on their way back from a youth conference in which one young boy died and others were seriously injured. Yesterday, Sara and I went to the funeral for this eleven year old boy who was in the youth group at Highland. It was a very intense and emotional experience for all who attended and my heart grieves and hurts for what his family and friends are experiencing right now. There is something unsettling about seeing someone younger than you pass on and as rare as it is (at least in my experience) I imagine the hardest thing for a parent to do is bury a child in their own lifetime, but in moments like yesterday we are smacked in the face with the reality that these things happen from time to time and the bubble that we had so convincingly lived in before isn't as safe and ideal anymore.

Sitting there in the sanctuary I couldn't help but cry. I cried for a young life lost. I cried for the empty void in a family's life. I cried for all his friends who only wished it would have been them instead. And I cried at the sheer magnitude of the incarnate God with arms wide open, present in all who gathered both in that building and around the world. It was then that I felt the overwhelming reassurance that, like the phoenix, we will rise from the ashes. It is not by our own power but by the hand of an almighty God who reaches down into the darkness of pain and despair, joins us there, and begins to lift us up to bring us to a place where once again we might be able to stand. I have seen the body of Christ before but never quite like this. The entire family at Highland has been shaken to the core whether you know those involved or not but in the midst of the tears there is one who is big enough to be there with us, to listen to our pain, our hurt, and our fears and to hold us in his loving arms. We don't have all the answers and there are things we will never understand but through it all we fall at the feet of the one who promises strength for the weary, healing for the brokenhearted, comfort for the hurting and life everlasting. God, help us to trust you and to not lean on our own understanding as we long and hope for the moment when we can rise above the ashes.