There are few words to describe how it feels to lose an eight-day-old.
The experience is many things, but fair is hardly one of them. It is hard to believe we cannot prevent such a tragedy today.
Alas, we cannot. And, doctors apparently have little insight or understanding into why these tragedies happen, yet they continue onward with no accountability.
In trying to understand why something like this happens, I reached out to the United Methodist Church to see what they had to say. I thought they had an interesting perspective:
The question you ask is a difficult one that theologians have struggled with through the years.
As United Methodists, we believe that God is good and created us to be recipients of his goodness, but we live in a fallen world where terrible, unexplainable things sometimes happen—like the deaths of children. We do not believe that God brings these tragic events into our lives or that “everything happens for a reason”—at least not in the sense that God has some mysterious purpose for the pain in our lives that we cannot see. We also do not believe that God stands by and allows these things to happen.
Instead, we believe that God is with us in our suffering and grieves with us through tragedy. We also believe that God can bring peace to our lives in the wake of suffering.
Finally, we believe that the community of faith, the church, is called to be God’s agents of healing in the world. It is the place where we are called to bear one another’s burdens, to pray for one another, to offer what we can, and to work toward the healing of all. We pray that you are part of a supportive congregation that will offer you and your family the strength and peace you need.
The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us there is a season for everything, including a time to be born and a time to die. Eight days hardly seems like the right time.
For more information, visit http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/ask-the-umc-how-do-united-methodists-understand-human-suffering-from-natura.
