grieving a sweet friend

My sweet friend died this past Sunday.  It was very sudden and unexpected.  She had a c-section last week and developed an infection.  Going in for a post-op visit, she never came home from the hospital.

She and her husband were shining examples of Christ's grace and mercy and love to me.  They let me live with them for a year and half when I didn't have a place to go.  She walked with Derek and I through some tough times.  She was my support when I needed someone's shoulder.  And now she's gone.

I'm thankful that God invites us to wrestle these things with Him.  Isaiah 1:18 says, "Come now, and let us reason together".  I can take all my emotions and my thoughts over my friend's death to Him openly and honestly.  And He listens to my cries.

He answered me with:
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts"~Isaiah 55:9
"Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.  And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none.  How precious are Your thoughts towards me, O God!  How great is the sum of them!" ~Psalm 139:16-17

Even though I am struggling with understanding the why of my friend's death, God has a plan.  I can't see it.  I don't know the whole picture.  But I do know that His word promises me that God had my friend's life planned.  Each and every day was written for her.  He held her in the palm of His hand, and never let her go.  He loved her so much more than I did, so much more than her husband and her children.

I'm clinging to these verses.  I'm praying the Holy Spirit will be comfort and strength and peace to her family and friends.  I'm thankful that I will see her again in eternity.

Please pray for her family.  Especially her small children.  Pray that they will find comfort in the Lord.  Pray for their week old baby.  Pray for her husband, who know has to balance all of these things by himself.  Most of all, pray that they continue to walk with the Lord, and find solace in Him.