I was helping move Aunt Rosana back home.
My cell phone buzzed over my heart. I hauled the phone out, flipped it open, and stared at the text message from our oldest daughter.
My cousin Jasper’s wife had died.
To get the import of that a little better, look at this:
That’s a screen capture of a sequence of three Facebook messages between one of Jasper’s sisters and me. (The Yesterday on the third message is today’s yesterday, April 4, 2012.)
Six months of marriage is all they got.
Ah, Lord God, I do not understand. I just don’t understand…
For further perspective, it is my understanding that Sheri was about a year old when Ruby and I got married almost 32 years ago.
Sheri’s death seems so untimely. Did God look at the numbers wrong and take her away ahead of schedule? I don’t believe so.
Yet, despite God’s rightness in all things, the heartache has to be incredibly immense for Jasper and the rest of Sheri’s immediate families.
May the God of peace be that to them.
May the God of comfort be that to them.
May they experience abundant provision from the God of what it takes.
I don’t say any of this glibly. They are not pat answers. I truly believe all that. And yet…would I want to have it all put to the test in my life as it is in Jasper’s? Of course not!
Well, to close this post, three pieces written by several of their family members:
In Memory of Sheri Shetler (April 3)
(No doubt there are others about which I do not know.)