So we rejoice in the good news that the one we loved who died in faith is with God. But now we suffer together with the hard news that they died at all. And if we are honest we must ask the hard question: why did this happen? Does God not care? Is he not powerful? Why does he permit such tragedy as this?

Let me tell you what we know, then I'll confess what we do not.

We know that this world is fallen from God's perfect plan for it. There was no death or grief in Eden. But when sin entered the world, creation "fell" (Romans 8:19-22). In this fallen world, hurricanes and tornadoes and cancer and disease and accidents occur. God does not "do" them—they are the inevitable result of natural laws in this fallen order.

But God uses such death and pain: "The perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality" (v. 54). Not one of us would wish to go through eternity in these diseased bodies of decay and suffering. So we don't have to. God uses the death which entered humanity from sin, to bring us to eternal glory with perfect bodies and lives.

So we know that God does not cause death, but that he uses it. And not just to bring us to glory, but to help those who are left behind as well. Walt Disney said that pain makes us bitter or better. God will use our grief to lead us to a deeper and greater faith.

And to lead others to him through our example. I was so touched by the way Winnie used George's homegoing to minister to us all. She designed the memorial service so that the gospel would be clear, our hope sure, and all led to Jesus.

Robbie and Allison Ates are my new heroes. On Friday afternoon last, after their Emily had gone home to God, they could not leave the hospital before they thanked the doctors and nurses who had helped them, promised to pray for the other families they knew from their month at the hospital, and ministered to the mother of the little boy in the room beside Emily's. God has used their faith, their courage, their suffering love to encourage my own heart. I am grateful beyond words.

We know that death is not God's fault, but that he will use it for our good and his glory. And we know that one day we will understand what we cannot understand today.

1Corinthians 13:12 is God's promise: "then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." One day we can ask God some very hard questions.

We do not know why God permits such suffering and death now, in these circumstances. This is because we cannot understand his ways, his eternal plans. Just as a six-year-old cannot master calculus, so we cannot comprehend the ways of God. It is not that he refuses to tell us, but that we cannot understand. But one day we will.