My 21-year-old nephew, Phillip, died this week. Our son and daughter-in-law were with us on a glorious day, travelling the bends of the Dingle peninsula to see Slea Head when we got the phone call. Usually our mobile calls come from within Ireland, so when we heard my brother-in-law's voice on the phone asking us to return the call, we knew the news must be bad.
We thought perhaps something had happened to my 91-year-old mother-in-law. She's fairly frail and had some broken bones as well as a hospitalization this year. The news was not what we anticipated. Our nephew, at missionary training in Colorado, was killed instantly in a motorcycle accident. Phillip had been at evening church with his buddies, taken a wrong turn on the way home, and as he tried to right his mistake was hit by an SUV and instantly died.
We wasted a few hours trying to figure out if any of us could make it home for the funeral before figuring out it wasn't possible. When the urgent need to respond finally subsided, we realized that we could deal with our grief even on holiday. There was something very therapeutic about being with family (something that doesn't happen very often now that we live on the other side of the Atlantic) and about being in a place of such resplendant beauty.
So today we're here while the rest of the family gathers for Phillip's funeral. I have some questions to which there will probably never be answers. Why must my fine brother-in-law, who has already been buffeted about by more tribulations than many people, endure yet another one? And why would God take a young man just ready to serve Him as an adult at the moment when that service was ready to begin? I don't know if this was a wake-up call for those of us who are family members, or perhaps even for some of Phillip's friends. My prayer is, though, that in today's funeral service, God will be glorified and people will be challenged as well as comforted in the midst of all the pain. I don't understand the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, but I am thankful that it is a rock to hold in the midst of storms like this one. I'm also thankful that Phillip was undeniably ready to meet God. So many people postpone momentous spiritual decisions until it's too late; I know where Phill is, and I'm thankful that, instead of succumbing to the distractions that no doubt came his way, he made the right choice.
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