Was it “their time”?

My friend was looking for candor. He genuinely wanted to know how I felt about the concept that “it was their time”.

This is not an easy question to entertain. The more untimely the death, the more painful it is to consider. Our boys were just about set to launch... How could anyone subscribe to the idea that this was their designated time to die?

The idea of a set time to die is so hard to accept - especially when it involves a child, a poor judgement call or death at the hand of a perpetrator. How could this be God’s will? Our inclination and desire for fairness shrieks to be heard.

I acknowledge two things that enable me to live with this un-ease:

1. We KNOW that we live in a world that groans under the weight of sin and brokenness. Our world is rife with the effects of sin, pollution, selfishness, unbridled ambition, corruption, disease, famine, greed, unfaithfulness… There is no denying that we ALL bear up under this burden. We all feel its effects. The idea that my life, uniquely, should be absent of difficulty is not intellectually honest. (Again, this brings me full circle to my understanding that Jesus came for the express purpose of providing God’s solution to our brokenness.)
2. I take MUCH comfort from Psalm 139. Look it up in its entirety! King David pens his heart-cry, and states His confidence. God is fully present in it all. I cannot run from Him! He is intimately acquainted with every detail of my life. He created me in my Mother’s womb. He formed my inward parts. Before I was born, he already knew the days he had ordained for me.

There is a wrestling with God’s sovereignty. As my friend puts it, “God didn’t see fit to consult with her on this” when her son died.

I take special note in Psalm 139: David talks about God ordaining the length of days for me, and he follows that statement with, “How precious are your thoughts to me, O God. How vast is the sum of them.”

God has our days set out for us before we even take our first breath. Despite the length of time we are given, we have the assurance that we are indeed precious to Him. Not an ounce of our darkness or suffering goes unnoticed by our loving Creator. He is present with us in it.

Note that David mentions “leading us in the everlasting way” at the end of the Psalm. Ultimately, this is our hope and assurance, that there is eternity yet ahead for those who love God, whose hearts are yielded toward Him.