A prayer

Dear God,

Hello again. It's I, Lord. Thanks for being there when I need You -- at least, eventually. Today's pretty tough, and one of Your children is having a really tough time and could use some help. Please show up.

His name is Chris and I met him today just after he found out his seven-month old baby died a short time ago. It appears as though his wife's 'boyfriend' bashed the baby's head in. Chris is flying back to the States tonight, I hope, and I'm asking that You send a spirit of fortitude and consolation, as much as that's possible, to him.

It tore at my gut to hear him, on the phone with family members back home, and barely able to breathe, mention that Ryan had gone out trick-or-treating as a banana.

When Chris pulled the dog-eared photo of Ryan, his only child, out of his wallet, I found myself barely able to breathe.

Such a beautiful little boy!! How could anyone hurt -- murder -- someone so tiny and vulnerable, with such gorgeous eyes?

When Chris accidentally dropped the photo and I picked it up, I felt dazed.

What could be said when I heard him telling his sister that his son had died in the hospital, "... and I was not there with him, to hold him"?

Chris is convinced you're punishing him, Lord, given this and the fact that his Dad died in February. He's also convinced that he's done something -- though it's not clear what -- to deserve punishment.

Heal that part of him, please. Send someone into his path back home who will help him, not to make sense of this, because there is no sense in it, but rather to move through it with as much grace as possible.

Please, please, please prevent him from having to hear some well-meaning but misguided person(s) tell him, "Everything happens for a reason."

Or, "God must love you a lot by sending so many trials into your life."

Or, "Nothing, absolutely nothing in God's world happens by mistake."

Sheesh.

What loving parent tortures a child to prove how much the child is loved?

What a stupid notion.

If 'everything happens for a reason' and 'nothing happens by mistake', that would mean that You intended this horror, that You planned it, that You made it happen. That's not the action of a loving parent, nor of a loving God; that is the action of a child abuser, of a monster.

*Please* spare Chris that nonsense.

Send him shoulders to cry on, arms to embrace him, eyes to shed tears with, legs to carry him, feet to journey with him, and broken hearts to be mended with his. I have seen You do this before.

A few of those for me and the rest of us would be appreciated as well.

Amen.