Most of us have had those moments. Where something drastic happened, that changed the course of our expected life. If it hasn’t happened yet, someday it will. It could be the birth of a baby with unforeseen health problems, a traumatic car accident, the unexpected death of a family member, or the end of a once hope-filled marriage. Unfortunately, we live in a world that has fallen well below its potential. 

            For myself, I was a happy-go-lucky kid born and raised in a small town (>950) surrounded by the cornfields of Nebraska, who had a life ahead of her that looked a lot like those who surrounded me: graduate high school, get a bachelor’s degree, come back and settle down with a husband to raise a family, spending time in church all week. But that’s not exactly how it worked out. Right before my 6th grade year, I was in a car with my maternal grandmother when we were hit by an intoxicated driver. My Grandma was killed instantly; he was paralyzed from the neck down, and the way I looked at the world was forever changed.

            I wrestled with whether God was and is good in those early moments. Would a good God allow a child to be traumatized? Would a good God take a woman of valor from this earth right as she began to disciple her granddaughter?