Baby Yoshua

Last Sunday Brett got a call from the preacher at Bupwanda telling him that his daughter Rachel’s child had passed away. This was the same girl I mentioned in a previous blog (Wiki nne) who is my age and who I had felt closest to in a village. We don’t know why the baby died, just that it was very sudden. They asked that we go with the whole family and the body back to Bupandwa for the funeral, so Brett, Dustin and I picked everyone up at Rachel and her husband’s home and set out for the village. Here I was, unsure of how much pain she was in. Unsure if she doubted God’s goodness. Unsure if even a hug was appropriate. Unsure if a smile would at all be comforting. Unsure if she was also amazed that it poured rain in the middle of dry season on the day of the funeral. Unsure of what to do in a roomful of mourning women. Unsure if Rachel knew all the people from nearby villages who came to give their condolences. Unsure why I was honored to sit with her family during the funeral. Unsure why just a few weeks earlier Dustin and I were astounded that baby Yoshua calmly laid in my lap the whole two hour bumpy ride to Bupandwa. Unsure why God orchestrated everything to happen like it happened. But sure that He did. And sure that He tells us BLESSED are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. And sure that “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 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 Corinthians 15:42-44