Diving in

We've only been here at the Vine Community Church a few weeks, but today we had our first crisis. One of the students from a much loved family in our church died last night in a car accident. Cole woke up this morning to the phone call and has been gone all day meeting with students, grieving with the family, and preparing for an impromptu memorial service for the youth that happened tonight. It has been an emotional day. I just got back from the service and am heavy with the grief that I witnessed there. I didn't really know the boy, Peter, but had gotten to know his sisters and parents just a little bit in the last few weeks. Last week I actually sat with his mom and sisters in church and took communion with them (Cole is usually running around the whole service so I'm on my own) and felt so loved by them "adopting" me for that Sunday. And here we are, a week later, and their whole world has crashed down on them. 

I keeping thinking about the day Matthew died and my heart just aches for his mom especially. The disbelief, the numbness, the anger, the crushing grief, and the aching emptiness is so overwhelming. Just making through the day is painful. I remember this wild and crazy sorrow that would come over me where I would think that I might not being able to keep living with my son gone. It's horrible. It gets better, of course, but the first days are horrible. I wish so badly that I could do or say something to make it better for this family. I wish Cole could give a magical sermon that would ease all the pain and calm all their hearts. But we can't do that. So instead, we pray that God would give them glimpses of heaven; glimpses that will bring peace, and eventually joy, to their hurting hearts. 

So I ask that y'all would pray for this family and for our youth group; that God would use this tragedy to bring glory to His name and that the hearts of all these hurting kids would be drawn to Him.