Cavanaugh, Christen

Scripture: Psalm 78:39 (ESV) – “He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.”

Message: One day a few years ago before he passed away, I was eating lunch with my Grandfather and told him about a very upsetting incident that had just happened in the news; a 2 year old boy was attacked and killed by an alligator while on vacation in Florida. It hit me so hard because my older son was around the same age at the time. I just couldn’t imagine the horror of witnessing that happen to your own child and having to return home without them, to say nothing of the countless other horrors that occur around the world every single day. I asked how God could allow such a thing to happen, and WHY???

Instead of saying “Well everything happens for a reason”, or “We just have to trust that God knows what He’s doing” as bad things happen to good people all the time, my Grandfather shook his head sadly and said “I don’t know, honey. We’ll never know why sometimes things happen the way they do. But God understands when we’re upset, He knows when we don’t understand why.”

I found those words very supportive. I learned that it is ok to feel sad, it is ok to be worried, it is ok to be HUMAN. My grandfather didn’t question my faith, or reprimand me for questioning God. He made it ok to feel the pain of a situation and ok to question God when we don’t understand. Through my Grandfather’s words I discovered God’s compassion. Sometimes we feel pressure when we have doubts that we might be losing our faith. However the great Comforter gives us His gift of comfort and He understands that we are “but flesh”. We just need to turn to Him.

Prayer: Father God, thank You for understanding our frailty as humans physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Thank You for allowing us to ask questions, to be scared, or to be confused, and feel ALL of our feelings, even the bad ones, without punishing or becoming angry with us. Thank You for understanding that we are but flesh and that sometimes life is very hard. And thank You for sending my precious Grandfather to speak those words into my life. In Jesus’ Holy Name we pray. Amen.

Christen Cavanaugh

Back to top