We have a son who is a freshman in college in another state.
So it was with great sadness that a week ago we heard the news that another set of parents had already heard, that their freshman college-aged son, Ethan Roser, was killed in a freak accident while at school, in our town.
I cannot imagine being those parents, getting that phone call.
Even if their faith in God is strong, how can it not be shaken in their grief? How can they continue to trust a God who calls himself both sovereign and good?
Our pastor, Josh Moody, on Sunday spoke to this—this question of God’s sovereignty sometimes clashing in our minds with His goodness. Here is what he said:
“We dare not say, “You’re not good”, so we wonder if You’re not sovereign…
If our idea of God’s goodness only pertains when we are on the mountaintops of life’s experiences and walking in the warm sunshine, then we understand goodness but we do not understand God…
It is the church with a sovereign God that is courageous in the midst of evil, for it believes, not burying its head in the sand ostrich-like or fiddling while Rome burns pretending that there is not evil. It faces the evil front on, face on, and also believes that God is the God who has a plan for good.”
I do not have the answers for these parents. I have to keep coming back to His Word, which again and again reminds me of both His love and His kingship.
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all…Bless the LORD, O my soul! (Psalm 103:13-22)
Each of us is but dust, grass, a flower. But the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.
My heart aches for the empty arms of this family. I can’t imagine the questions they are crying out to a God who is both sovereign and good. Ethan’s older brother, Johnathan, has posted this encouragement: “Ethan would want you to know that although we face many setbacks and struggles in life, that there is great victory and triumphant glory in knowing and following Jesus. Death never has the final word because Jesus overcame death and has prepared a place for us in heaven with the great ones.” (quoted here, emphasis mine)
The Roser family is not without hope because Ethan knew and followed Jesus.
Hope and Be.Longing
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 NLT)
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