"It didn't turn out right"

That's what she said when I walked into her room at the nursing home.

I was there to help plan a funeral on Saturday, for her daughter.  Her brothers were also with us.

A couple of weeks ago I got a call from this woman's daughter.  I didn't
know her terribly well;  I saw her fairly often when she came to church
with an older gentleman, a friend of the family.  He couldn't drive
anymore, so she volunteered to take him to church.  She said it would
help her be more regular in her own worship attendance.

When she called, she was excited.  She wanted me to officiate at her
wedding in May.  "I'm 60 years old and I'm getting married for the first
time!" she told me.  She couldn't believe her luck.  She had gotten
re-acquainted with an old friend, the son of the man that she brought to
church, and they had decided to get married.   They met because he
would often come and make a nice dinner for his parents after church. 
We talked to each other a few times, trying to figure out dates and
times.

Last week, she was hospitalized with complications from a cold. 

On Thursday night, she had a stroke.

On Tuesday, she died.

"It didn't turn out right", her mother told me.

Some people talk about the "sovereignty of God" as if God has
orchestrated every single blessed and tragic small and great thing in
the world.  Every single solitary thing that happens is "God's plan," as
if God is pulling all kinds of strings all over the place.  I believe
in the sovereignty of God, but I'm not sure that's what it means.  I
think that somehow, in the end, God will work everything for good, that
there will be a time and a place where there is no more crying and no
more death, where every tear will be wiped away, and where we will cast
our crowns before the throne of the Lamb.

In the meantime, sometimes, it just doesn't turn out right.

Originally posted at Faith in Community