April's Tears

I've never really understood the purpose of the month of April. April just seems to bring a lot of malice in the world...not sure why. For example, April is a month that delivered a cancer diagnosis, took my grandfather and great uncle away, and was the month for events like Columbine, Oklahoma City, and now Virginia Tech. Why? I thought April only brought showers...not tears. Like I have said before, there is a purpose to pain and grief. It's our responsibility to take our experiences and learn from them...to share with others. The comfort that God gives us in our tribulations becomes a gift we can give to others. Our willingness to share our experiences reflects the sincerity of our faith. I was able to witness this last night while watching the coverage on the VT Tragedy. They were interviewing a father of a Columbine victim. His son had lost his two best friends, their blood sprayed all over him, and his sister to this horrible event. The father said that focusing on the killers and what could have been done did nothing for his family. However, making sure to celebrate the lives of his daughter and his son's friends every day and the joy that they brought to the family, provided a way to ease the grief. That father is using his experience to comfort those that just lost a loved one in Virginia. Taking our own experiences and providing comfort...that's how we'll get through the month of April and the days ahead.

"Blessed be the God and Father our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
II Corinthians 1:3-5