AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Heaven knew, Kevin had tried to surrender to God on this. But heaven knew, that hadn’t gone well. Because Connor had done the right thing—a noble thing. And because it seemed like a tease to have Sadie get well, declared cancer free, only to die of it a few years later.
And because it was helpless agony to watch your child go through that sort of deep grief.
There had been so many unanswered whys. So many sleepless nights full of spiritual wrestling matches with God.
And there had been the terribly hard thing of witnessing Samuel and Eleanor Allen as they’d walked through the same grief, only certainly deeper, darker. Because Sadie wastheirdaughter. Like George and Elizabeth, they’d only had one child, and they’d buried her.
How did one reconcile God’s goodness with that?
Kevin hated it, but the truth was, some days there was simply defeat. There was doubt. He would yell at God in anger and frustration. And then weep because it didn’t help. It didn’t change anything.
What it did do was summon the question as old as the book of Job—why do bad things happen to good people?
Why do God’s people go through hard stuff?
I wish I could understand.
Kevin squeezed his eyes shut as that decades-old conversation resurfaced. He’d had it with George several months after Dave died. At the point when George had started meeting with the man who had killed his own son.
That had seemed too much to ask.
George had looked at a younger Kevin when he’d muttered that very sentiment. His eyes held sorrow but also warning.My boy, what if it had been you?
Indeed, what if? Kevin didn’t think he could live with himself if he’d been that driver. But he well could have been.
Anger, shame, and frustration had clutched him in a hard, tangled-up ball.Why would God let that happen though? Why would he let this happen to Dave? To you? I keep trying to make it make sense, but it doesn’t, and that scares me.
George had nodded, no censure in his eyes, and gripped Kevin’s forearm.I know.
Of course George knew. Dave had beenhisson. He should be the one angry and upset in this conversation, not the one holding steady, consoling.
I wish I could understand. Why do bad things happen . . .He didn’t finish the murky question.
To good people?
Kevin nodded.
I’ve been thinking that too. Asking it.
And?
No answer, Kevin. I don’t have an answer. But I’ve been struck with another question lately.
What’s that?
What if God is showing the heavenlies that there are faithful men? People who will choose to say, “Yet shall I praise you,” even when it hurts and it’s not fair and it doesn’t make sense?
Why would He need to do that?
Because there is a war, Kevin, and we are in the middle of it. Satan says that people will only be as faithful as far as the blessings go. God has claimed that there are some who will be faithful beyond that. People who will love Him no matter what comes.
Their conversation had gone on for quite some time. Kevin had argued that he didn’t want to be part of a cosmic bet. If there was a war, he wanted out of the middle of it.
George had calmly, humbly responded that perhaps that wasn’t up to them.
It had been a profound conversation. One that Kevin had wrestled with on and off through the years. And was the real reason he’d wanted to visit the cemetery today, after Tyler made his announcement.
Once again Kevin found himself in a circumstance he didn’t anticipate and certainly hadn’t wanted. Letting go of Murphy Builds was hard—so much harder than he’d imagined. Mostly because he hadn’t imagined that his business wouldn’t survive his retirement. He’d intended it to be a legacy to pass on to his sons. Maybe even his grandchildren.
