Schrock Follow-up

It has now been over three months since the tragic accident that took the lives of Jeff and Carolyn Schrock’s five children.

A few weeks ago Carolyn stopped in with her new baby, a dark-haired cutie that looks like Jeff. I had a thousand questions to ask her but hardly knew how to articulate them, or if they were appropriate. "Go ahead, just ask, it’s ok," she said calmly.

"How is it now?" I said, a bumbling way of asking, "Does life go on? Is your soul scarred forever? Is there any beauty in that land of grief in which you now live?"

She said, "There is grace. I feel like Job. He said,’I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.’ This is how different my life is: we went to Goodwill yesterday. Well. What was there to look for at Goodwill? We bought Jeff a pair of shoes, and then what? That was it."

I told her, "You and Jeff have earned this enormous credibility. For the rest of your lives, when you talk about God, people are going to sit up and listen."

On a slightly different note, you may recall I wrote about the man who lost five children in a fire and concluded that his friend who lost his children through divorce had actually had it harder.

Some time ago a woman told me, "I just want to affirm what you said about a divorce being harder than a multiple death. Two years ago I lost my brother, his wife, and their daughter in a car accident. And then my sister’s husband left her. And that has been much, much worse than the deaths. It just goes on and on." She paused, tears in her eyes, and shook her head. "It has been hell."

Everyone go hug your spouse and children.

Quote of the Day:
"My grace is sufficient."
--God