In “Choosing Life,” I told you that I am allergic to roses.  When I heard the song “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden,” I was thrilled.  Nothing would be more deadly to me that a rose garden.  Bottom line: Never be allergic to something that everybody loves.

On the news today, the lead story was a German airliner that crashed into the Alps.  The father of one of the young people killed in the crash said to the other parents who lost their children, “Don’t think of the last ten seconds of their lives.  Think of the happy times you had with them.”  That’s when it occurred to me that we are never promised a lifetime with our children.   My Aunt Lainey lost a baby boy only a few short weeks after he was born.  One of my  cousins lost a son.  I know that the pain left in their hearts still exists today, after all the years that have passed.

I, too, carry pain in my heart on a daily basis because of the rejection from my two grown sons.  (Rejection is God’s protection.)  They expected to inherit millions from my alcoholic  father if they betrayed me.  I was the only one to tell my father that  he was an alcoholic and he needed help, so my father set out to destroy me.  He did a really good job.  He was a genius, after all.  I have not heard from my sons for over twenty years.  (They do not respond to e-mails or phone calls.)  But today, I have some relief.  We lose our children in many different ways.  They were given to us as a temporary joy, not as a promise for a lifetime.  Our focus must be on the memories of the happy times, not on the reason we lost them.  The pain in our hearts remains, but Jehovah God covers that pain with His Comfort and His peace.