Good morning…
I read aloud to the classes in our living room two poignant pages from Paula D’Arcy’s most well-known book, Gift of The Red Bird, two pages that describe one life altering day. Paula and her husband Roy were enjoying a simple life with their first toddling daughter Sarah when we pick up their story.
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Gift of the Red Bird by Paula D’Arcy
In June 1975 we learned that I was again pregnant. I felt proudly on the brink of every dream. In August of that year we traveled from our Connecticut home to Massachusetts to share the excitement in person with my parents. I was looking ahead with assurance, never guessing that this trip could end with such senseless tragedy.
But as we returned home to Connecticut on August 18th, our car was struck by a drunken motorist who careened across a divided interstate highway where the required metal safety barrier had been “overlooked” and never installed. The driver’s speed was ninety-seven miles per hour. Sarah died of head injuries on August 20th, and Roy died three days later from a ruptured spleen. I was twenty-seven years old, three months pregnant, miraculously alive, and shattered beyond any sense. I wished I too had died, and couldn’t image ever feeling differently. The long journey of grief would consume the agonizing years which followed. I gave birth to my second daughter, Beth, on March 20th, 1976. For her sake I fought back my way to sanity, filled with questions, fears, and disillusionment about life. The greatest question was: How could a loving God let this happen? (29-30)
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Filled with questions, fears, and disillusionment about life, there are a handful of life-changing moments when we are forced to ask the greatest question: “How could a loving God let this happen?” And Jesus adds another one as he hangs dying on the cross: About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Matthew 27:46, NIV). Our lifetime of faith is spend walking and talking with these two hard, unavoidable questions.
…Sue…
