glory revealed

How is it that it too often takes a tragedy to reveal the glory that always surrounds us? The curtain to eternity has been lifted through the tragic death of a fellow student at Westminster last Thursday evening. There is mystery that enshrouds the circumstances that surround this loss. All of us as a community are shocked and bewildered with the heaviness of such an untimely death.

It is rare for us as a young community to experience the reality of death. Yet it has served to sharpen what I believe about death and how I am to live each day. Eternity is a breath away. It is close. Life is fragile. The lives of those I love are fragile. We are fragile.

Yet our Savior is so, so strong. With a strength that is gentle: "...a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench..." (Isaiah 42.3) He carries his own close, and I know that this brother of mine--though I barely knew him--is gathered close to him right now. He is H O M E !

So there is reason to rejoice even amidst the grieving. There is reason to invest in the relationships around me. To love freely, even generously. Even in the midst of finals.

These exams, this studying, these papers are NOT all there is or even ultimately what is most important. In fact, to make them my life is to miss out on the way eternity pushes into life today. There will be perfect joy then, but there is rejoicing even today. For our Redeemer is pushing back the darkness...of death's sting, of sin's pain, of life's brokenness.

And we were given a tangible picture of that on Saturday morning, as I was blessed with the joy of many friends who gathered for my first bridal shower. It was such a sweet time as they rejoiced with me in God's gift of Seth into my life (and showered me with many fun gifts, from the slightly "scandalous" to the kitchen practical). It left my heart rejoicing at God's gift of so many amazing friends -- that He has given in two short years in Philadelphia.

Richly blessed, we are.

Joy and sorrow intertwine, weaving a story that is both merciful and confusing at times. And so we worship the Unseen One, saying with the psalmist: "even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you." (Psalm 139:12)