Shadowlands - God's Megaphone

1. “We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' and I accept it. I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.” 
   ― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

It was a rather gloomy day in this small town. Hardly anyone is outside these days. You walk down the street and you see window curtains drawn with slivers of light shimmering through breaking the darkness outside.

 Fear seems to have drawn people indoors since 3 young people were killed in a head-on collision coming home from a basketball game in a neighboring town. This was once a gregarious town with people so friendly that one didn't have to venture far without someone saying hello and referring you by name.

 It was in a sense a town that one would envision just listening to Garrison Keillor Prairie home companion. Since the losses of these young people, such profound grief had settled upon this town as though a permanent black cloud had settled in overhead.  I decided to enter the Up Town family restaurant for a warm cup of coffee and no sooner I entered was a remembrance photo of the 3 teenagers with a vase of red roses nearby.People in this quiet restaurant would offer their memories of the deceased young people as though they needed help getting the awful memory of what just happened as they were coming from a simple basketball game in a neighboring town; something no parent could rationally comprehend would happen to someone younger than them.  

 The Pastor at Our Saviour's Lutheran church did offer some condolences in his weekly message, but also encouraged people to keep talking, keep writing, and keep reading the gospels of Jesus for guidance on this journey no one expected to be on.

 Life, I've learned is filled with uncertainty.  One day we're celebrating and drinking champaign and the next day we're sitting in the middle of the church sanctuary staring at a friends casket, as though we're sucking on a sweet and sour Lozenge, enjoying the one flavor while detesting the other. 

As I paid for my coffee and take one more look at the photos I thanked the cashier and quietly thank my Lord for giving me Jesus who walks with me as I walk this uncertain life filled with joy and sorrow, sometimes with enough tears to fill a small river basin.   I know from my own experiences with traumatic grief several years ago that God will come through for the parents and friends of these 3 teens killed returning from an ordinary basketball game.