Sanctified afflictions

Thanks for praying for the family who lost their son and grandson.   This morning we learned that 6 young people were brought to Christ because of this event.  On the evening before his death, this young man and a friend were on the beach looking at the stars.  He was wondering what heaven was like. God answered his question by bringing him home to glory.

Mourner! Go sit under your "Beloved’s shadow with great delight." Hide in His wounded side! The hand which was pierced for you is ordering your trials; He who roused the storm is the hiding place from it; and as you journey on, gloomy clouds mustering around you, let this bright rainbow of comfort ever arrest your drooping eye; "For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way... since He Himself has gone through suffering and temptation, He is able to help us when we are being tempted."

The believer has "mourning days." The place of his sojourn is a valley of tears. Adam went weeping from his paradise, we go weeping on the way to ours. But, pilgrim of grief, your tears are numbered. A few more aching sighs; a few more gloomy clouds; and the eternal sun shall burst on you, whose radiance shall never more be obscured! Life may be to you one long "Valley of Baca" a protracted scene of "weeping!" but soon shall you hear the sweet chimes wafted from the towers of the new Jerusalem, "Enter into the joy of your Lord!" "The Lord God shall wipe away all tears from off all faces!"

From The Rainbow in the Clouds ~ John MacDuff (1818-1895)