Monday, July 07, 2008

A story

Y'all, many years ago I went to a fantastic church outside of Nashville and had some fantastic church friends. Kirsten is one of them; Todd and Nicol Smith (now Sponberg) are two others. Todd and Nicol started the christian music group Selah, so you may have heard of them (Nicol later left the group). Their parents are longtime christian missionaries to the Congo, and wonderful people.

In the past few months, Todd and his wife Angie lost their fourth child, Audrey, a couple hours after she was born. You can read Angie's blog about the experience here. Seven weeks after they lost Audrey, Nicol and Greg's 10-week old son Luke passed away from SIDS.

I don't want to try to wax eloquent about the pain this family is feeling, just say that you could search the world and it would be hard to find a nicer family. I want to hug my friends and tell them that God is faithful. I know that they know and believe this, and it must be very difficult for anyone who is not a christian to understand why and how I could possibly say something like that in the face of such tragedy. But He is.

When a christian says "God is faithful" we do not mean that life does not contain tragedy. We mean that when it does (and it does), and when we have nowhere else to go, He is still good, faithful and strong. I can't explain it any better. Why do those awful things happen, I don't know. But I do know that when they do, we are never alone.

If you're a praying person please keep the Smiths and Sponbergs in your prayers. And kiss the people you love, and tell them you are thankful for them in your lives.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Heb. 10:23)

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh my word. I can't even begin to understand what this poor family is going through. I will definitely keep them in my prayers.

12:20 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

So, so sorry to hear about this. I appreciate the reminder to let those in our lives know much we love them. I just had a huge fight with DH on the phone, and I had a big one with my 16 yo DS this morning! I really needed to be set straight. Again, I'm so sad for your friends. I hope their faith can see them through this difficult time.

3:18 PM  
Blogger Leslie said...

Such sadness for those families to bear! Thank you for letting us know and for expressing your feelings.

6:18 AM  

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