the completeness of fragility

Unravel by Regardt van der Meulen via JustLuxe

The enormity and completeness of our fragility is truly terrible to conceive of.  In only a moment, the unknown knocks at our door and envelopes a loved one.  We have hopes and faith in what comes for them and us, but none of us ever truly know what lies there.  Death is terrible because we have no basis to judge it by--we only know they have been removed from us.

Life and consciousness--so complexly engendered--we take perversely for granted.

In moments following the loss of young lives, we reflect with questions of 'why,' that have no conceivable answers.
As a Christian, my hope is in not in the temporal--however, it is my only experience.  I struggle on days like today when young people are lost to us.  My hope in eternity is not unshakeable.  If I'm honest, how can it be?  To be sure I trust, to a feeble extent, this timeline will not be our only experience, but faith is not confirmation.  I both envy and don't understand those who are sure; I despise and decry their surety.  Our belief does not make things so, and our faculties tend to belie supernatural claims.  Inherent in this knife-edge is the conception of our own humanity--how cynical or trusting are you?

Today I'm cynical, making grief hard.  Moments of peace may flit about my thoughts--they draw my mind out of despair and remind me: we can hold steadfastly to promises though we aren't able or prepared to evaluate them.  I want nothing more than to evaluate their merit, but: I choose this life because a man named Jesus once laid every ounce of his humanity and divinity on the very same line that we cross--because he stared fragility in the face, and eschewed beautiful promises which give us peace.

In that moment Jesus said, "I know."  That's enough for me.

That alone is able to give me a semblance of peace and comfort on a day like today--to allow myself to pray sincerely that God's will be done.  I rarely think of the Heidelberg Catechism in moments like this, but this is the benefit we have knowing that God created and upholds all things:

"for all creatures are so completely in his hand
        that without his will
        they cannot so much as move."

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for David Talsma and Chase Froese, Sandra Bland and Eric Garner and Walter Scott; for those grieving and those unsure how to.

for all creatures are so completely in his hand

that without his will

they cannot so much as move

- See more at: http://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/10.html#sthash.F4EnAA0n.dpuf

for all creatures are so completely in his hand

that without his will

they cannot so much as move

- See more at: http://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/10.html#sthash.F4EnAA0n.dpuf

for all creatures are so completely in his hand

that without his will

they cannot so much as move

- See more at: http://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/10.html#sthash.F4EnAA0n.dpuf

for all creatures are so completely in his hand

that without his will

they cannot so much as move

- See more at: http://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/10.html#sthash.F4EnAA0n.dpuf

for all creatures are so completely in his hand

that without his will

they cannot so much as move

- See more at: http://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/10.html#sthash.F4EnAA0n.dpuf