The Hardest Things

My grandfather never talked about the hardest things in his life.  Never.

And what were they?

When the Great Storm hit Galveston in 1900, he was on duty in the Medical School and its hospital, a massive, make-shirt emergency room.  When the New London School exploded, he was a first-responder.  Neither event was ever discussed, even in the family.

He and Pearl lost their first girl at the age of 4 months; the young doctor could not prevent it.  When his first son died at age 30, and his second son at age 36, the doctor's skills had no effect.  He was a battler against death, always, and kept much of his pain to himself.  Don Pevey said at his funeral:  "He battled for others at the gates of death time after time.  When the gates opened for him, he quietly walked through as one who had a friend in now-familiar territory."

It is good to know that when Isaiah looked forward to the coming of the "man acquainted with grief", that hope could be fulfilled in Jesus.  Even today.

And when the world gives us new grief, we not only take that NEW grief to the Lord in prayer, but somehow all those old griefs come along with us in that moment.  And in that moment, we intercede for all the others who grieve today.

Pray for all who mourn today.