I haven’t written in a while, because I knew what I had to write about and I have been waiting for words. Two weeks ago was the Clemson game. Right as we were about to go to bed, my roommate got a phone call. Her family friend, Virginia, had been killed in a car wreck. I’ve never met Virginia, but as the day went on I realized how many people I’m close to did know and love her. Death is such a hard thing to grasp, each and every time it hits. There is something especially hard about understanding why God would take a beautiful seventeen year old girl so full of life. Yet I can already tell that he knows what he is doing. So many people have been touched by her life, and the way she lived it sold out for the Lord. Many people have found the courage to share the Gospel for the first time. Everyone speaks of Virginia’s love for others and her joy in the Lord. It makes me think. When I die, how will people characterize me? Will Jesus be the first thing that comes to mind? Oh how I pray that He is. I think one thing that hits me every time someone dies is that this world is not our home. There are so many things that we stress over that will not make a bit of a difference for all of eternity. 1 Peter calls us “strangers in the world.” Yet so often I try so hard to look like a local. I think most of us live like we are invincible. We don’t think it will be us next. Yet Virginia’s death has refocused my eyes on eternity! I can honestly say that if the Lord chooses to call me home, I am ready. I know these feelings might not last long, because the world will tangle me up time and time again. But glorifying the King of Creation for all eternity is what I need to keep my eyes on instead. Oh how good our God is. When tragedy strikes, our God is good. And he can give us joy regardless of circumstances.
“For my thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8
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