Today was Reese Catherine's funeral in Fayetteville. Jenny had been there all weekend, and I wanted to be there to support her, as well as to support Katie and Jason at this incredibly difficult time.
It was a chain of events that made me consider staying in Central Arkansas for the day...discovering on the opposite side of town that my wallet was still at home, as I sat at the gas pump on complete fumes; being stopped for speeding, driving without a license, and driving without a seatbelt on, just moments after I had discovered both the absence of my wallet and the absence of fuel in the vehicle.
Add to that the fact that it was exactly an hour after we planned on leaving and I was still blocks away from my house and had yet to fill the tank, and I was completely sure God was telling me to stay in Little Rock.
It wasn't God telling me that.
You see, as I sat somewhere I never thought I would sit, and listened words spoken by a dear friend that I never thought would have to be said, I experienced one of the deepest hours of worship of my life.
Hearing a young mother retell her fight with God over the last week - and listening as she coupled every "why God?" with his perfect answer spoken back to her from His word - was quite possibly the most pure, gut-wrenching, face-to-the-floor moments of Raw Christianity I have ever encountered.
One of the most impossible things to convey to someone during a time of extreme loss is God's presence in the midst of suffering. Not only was this young mother able to utter her
"Whys?", she listened so as to hear, quite perfectly, every "Because."
"There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more fears.
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more, we'll see Jesus face to face.
But until that day, we'll hold onto you always."
- Jeremy Camp
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