Sometimes things happen we just can’t explain. I think of young people and children with incurable diseases, suffering and facing death long before their time. Why does it happen? And, what do we say to the grieving parents and family members when it does?

What follows was my attempt to offer consolation and hope when my granddaughter Eva, a full-term baby, unexpectedly died in the womb at the close of August 2012.

Some things are beyond our ability to understand and are certainly beyond our ability to explain. And what to say in such situations is most difficult because no words can give comfort and take away the pain!

It happened last week. My phone rang Monday morning. It was my son-in-law, husband to my oldest daughter.

It must be the news I’ve been waiting for. My daughter was due to give birth to a daughter.

“You’ve got news?” I asked.

The reply came in a tearful voice, “Yes, but it’s not good.”

Then, my son-in-law explained to me that “something had gone wrong with the umbilical cord. It had gotten a kink in it or something.

“The blood supply was cut off.

“The baby didn’t make it. There was nothing the doctors could do.”

I later learned from my daughter that she had noticed her baby, Eva Nicole, wasn’t active as usual on Sunday. She thought it was because labor was beginning. When her water broke and she went to deliver early Monday, no heartbeat could be found.

Eva was stillborn.

What do I say?

How do I give comfort to my grieving daughter and her family?

How can I make sense out of what’s happened?

And the obvious answer is: I can’t.

One Bible verse which comes to mind is this: “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

There are just things we don’t and can’t understand. We have no explanation and no reason; and if God were to tell us, we would still not be able to understand and accept His answer. God’s ways, His plans, are far beyond the comprehension of puny minds like mine. I can’t understand. All I can do is trust that He indeed knows best.

The Bible tells us: “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

Though I can’t understand or explain, I do know this: God has His reasons, and His plan is better than any plan you or I could ever have. His plan and His working is for the good of Eva, for He called her name even before her birth and spared her the evil and troubles of life in this sin-cursed world.

And God’s plan is for the good of Eva’s mother and family, and even for a grieving grandpa who never got to hold this granddaughter.

How I wish I could have held her, baptized her in the name of Jesus, heard her voice and watched her grow up into a young lady! But now I’ll have to wait to see Eva until this life ends for me too and I also go to be with Jesus, our Savior.

To rephrase David’s words in 2 Sam. 12:23, “I shall go to where she is, but she shall not return to me.”

Though we were not privileged to hear Eva’s voice, in many ways she speaks to us in her death.

Her perfectly formed body is a testimony to the truth recorded in Psalm 139:13-16, where we read: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Her death testifies to the truth that she too, like David, was conceived and brought forth in sin (Psalm 51:5); and to the words of Genesis 3, which say, “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (v. 19).

The brevity of her life and her being called home even before she was born are a reminder of Luke 18:15-16, in which babies were brought to Jesus that He might touch them and His disciples attempted to stop them. “Jesus called them to Him and said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.’”

Laying her tiny body in the ground in hope of the resurrection speaks of Christ’s death and resurrection. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures … He was buried … He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3,4).

It reminds us of the truth that “since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:21-23).

Her burial speaks the truth: “The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:42-44).

Thus, Eva’s death speaks of the sin-cursed world in which we live, a world in which even babies and children die because of Adam’s sin. It reminds us that this world is not the place in which to build our hopes and dreams.

But Eva’s being called out of this world by Jesus speaks of the day when we too will be called from this life by the Lord Jesus.

And Jesus has made it possible for us to be ready for that day. He so loved the world — babies and children too — that He suffered and died for our sins and rose again to win for us pardon and to give us life eternal with Him. He calls to us in His Word, offering us forgiveness and life in His name. He shed His blood and established a gracious covenant with us that all who believe and are baptized into Him might be saved.

Eva has been called home to be held in the arms of Jesus. We don’t understand God’s ways or His timing. But those who trust in Jesus for pardon and for life, have the assurance that He will also receive them at His call.

So, I’ll have to wait to hold Eva, to see her face and hear her voice. But that day will come because of Jesus. He shed His blood to redeem Eva and He shed His blood to redeem you and me.

That reminds me of another passage in Isaiah: “He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young” (40:11).

By Randy Moll. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Again and again I hear preachers telling mourning loved ones that this person or that is, without a doubt, in heaven because of how much he loved Jesus, how many people’s lives she touched, how strong a faith he had or how much good she accomplished in her lifetime.

I can’t help but wonder, “Was it enough?” After all, God’s Word commands us to love the LORD God with all our heart, soul and mind; to love others as much as we love ourselves; to be holy and perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. It says our best works, in and of themselves, are like filthy and unclean rags in God’s eyes.

So, I just want to make a few things clear before I die. I might even suggest these words be read on that occasion so there is no doubt:

• I won’t be in heaven because of how much I loved Jesus; I will be in heaven because of how much Jesus loved me!

• I won’t be in heaven because of any good things I’ve done; I will be in heaven because of all the good and perfect things Jesus did for me!

• I won’t be in heaven because of all I’ve sacrificed for Jesus; I will be in heaven because of all Jesus sacrificed for me when He gave His life on the cross and paid the just penalty for my sin.

• I won’t be in heaven because I died a good death for Jesus; I will be in heaven because Jesus died a good death for me, conquered sin and death and rose again to be my ever-living Savior!

• I won’t even be in heaven because of my strong and enduring faith; I will be in heaven because Jesus gave me His Spirit at my baptism, and the Holy Spirit endured me and patiently and again and again throughout my life revealed to me my utter sinfulness but assured me of forgiveness and acceptance for Jesus sake!

So, you see, I won’t be in heaven because of me – I’ve failed and come short; but I will be in heaven because of Jesus – He did it all!

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” (Rom. 3:23-24).

To quote from the hymn (emphasis mine), “Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness,” written by Ludwig von Zinzendorf and translated by John Wesley, nearly 300 years ago, “When from the dust of death I rise to claim my mansion in the skies, e’en then, this shall be all my plea: Jesus hath lived and died for me.”

“Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.” John 12:31-33 (Read v. 27-43)

How is Jesus’ death on the cross the judgment of this world? And how is it connected to the prince of this world being cast out? We find the answer in God’s Word, the Bible.

To understand, we must consider what happened in Genesis 3. The serpent deceived Eve, and Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commandment and brought sin and the curse and condemnation of sin into this world. Satan used God’s good law to bring about God’s curse upon man and all creation. As a result of Adam’s sin, all are conceived and born in sin and guilty before God and under the condemnation of His holy commandment (Gen. 1:16-17; Psalm 51:5; Rom. 5:12).

Jesus, by His innocent sufferings and death on the cross, suffered the curse of God’s law for us (cf. Gal. 3:10,13). He undid the damning work of the devil by making atonement for the sins of all that through faith in his name we might have pardon, forgiveness and life everlasting instead of death and eternal condemnation (cf. Heb. 2:14-17).

The devil, also called the accuser of the brethren, was cast out of heaven – he can no longer accuse us before God because our sins were judged and atonement made on Jesus’ cross (cf. Rev. 12:7-11).

This world, too, is judged by Jesus’ death on the cross. Since Christ died for sin and atonement has been made, all those who refuse to repent and believe in the promised Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), Jesus the Messiah and Savior, stand condemned for their unbelief (cf. 1 Pet. 3:18-20).

And the same holds true for people today. Those who hear the Word of God and repent, placing their faith and hope in Jesus and His cross, are saved. They have pardon and forgiveness for all their sins, and they have eternal life in God’s kingdom.

But those who neglect and refuse to heed God’s Word stand condemned for not believing in the name of Christ Jesus, God’s only-begotten Son come into this world to redeem us from sin and death. It is as Jesus said, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18; cf. v. 36; John 12:47ff.).

O dearest Jesus, grant that I hear Your word, acknowledge my sin and guilt and look to You and Your cross for forgiveness and life everlasting. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible]

“This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:11-12

The religious leaders of the first century rejected Jesus as the Son of God and their Messiah and had Him crucified to maintain their own religious system of worship and service to God. They even arrested and persecuted Jesus’ disciples for proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah and Savior.

Today, too, many religious leaders – from pastors to seminary professors to heads of church bodies – set aside Jesus and His doctrine in order to maintain their own doctrine and church bodies. Instead of preaching the truth about man’s sinfulness and proclaiming the salvation God provided in His Son, Jesus Christ, they set aside the true doctrine and turn Jesus into little more than an example of godly living and charity for people to emulate today.

What does the Bible say of all this? It says that Jesus “is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

So, while religious leaders of our day set aside the Jesus of the Bible and seek to build the kingdom of God with their own doctrines and their own worship practices, there is only one way of salvation and it is the salvation God provided for mankind when he sent His only-begotten Son into the world as a man to suffer and die and make atonement for the sins of all and then rise again from the dead.

There is only one way of salvation, and that is through faith in Messiah Jesus and His atoning sacrifice upon the cross for the sins of the world. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (cf. John 14:6).

O gracious and merciful God, grant that I not set aside Christ Jesus, the Son, nor reject the salvation You have provided for all through His innocent sufferings and death on the cross. Grant that I acknowledge my sinfulness and look to Him alone for forgiveness and life everlasting. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

[Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible]

For those unable to attend worship today at Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rogers, a video may be watched below: