13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you wI ill not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep [a]in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive [b]and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a [c]shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive [d]and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
That Scriptural verse was quoted by Carrie McDonnall in her book entitled 'Facing Terror' which is about her friendship and soon to be marital relationship with David who shared the same common love for Muslim people.
The story starts off with her describing the violent gun fire that left her for dead and barely hanging onto life and David supposedly with only minor injuries. She tells a story of her ministry to the Palestinian people and living in a shipping container converted apartment and ministering to children by washing floors and cleaning toilets while her friend David traveled between Jordan and the highly volatile area of Sudan to do needs assessment and prepare the way for future missions teams. Since they served with the same missions organization one of the rules was they could not be romantically linked. We would soon learn that God had plans for the two of them to be married and moving to Iraq during the time of upheaval so they could serve the people in Mosul, Iraq. They would soon learn that Mosul would be one of the hotbeds for terror activities.
Carrie describes being in Iraq during the American invasion and what it was like when Saddam Hussein was captured and the freedom these people felt when they realize they were no longer under the threat of this very brutal dictator.
She describes the shock and pain she felt when finally her parents and sister told her that David never made it out of Iraq and how he went into cardiac arrest while being transported to Baghdad. She describes her extensive injuries and how she was so full of metal that when she passes through metal detectors at the airport that she would light up the board. She describes how she will always have these visible reminders of her loss.
She reminded the readers that when we are in Christ we are not to grieve as one who has no hope, but grieve with hope that one day when this earthly existence is finished we would all be united in heaven. During one stay in the hospital she shares how she would hear a chorus in her head as though they were singing outside her room and every time she asked her mom where it was coming from her mom told her that there was no one singing. The song she kept hearing in her head and she would soon realize it was from God were the words 'Thank you for the Cross' as though God were reminding her that it was the cross that made it possible for all of us to come to him.
For those of us who grieve God shows us in very poignant ways that he has not left us and will not abandon us in our grief.
For those who grieve there are always going to be visible reminders of the one who prematurely departed, but there are invisible reminders that this pain is only temporary and when our grief journey is finished God will use our pain to bring others to the Lord. Only God can see the bigger picture in what we are presently facing and in time you will be able to see that picture and why this happened and that happened in this life.
I highly recommend this book as once again it is a reminder that God is always with us when terror strikes us like it did with Carrie McDonnall.
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