God connected the dots when I met a man named Srinivas Naik around 2007. He eventually became a vital link between my former church in Tennessee and the Banjara people of India. I first traveled to India in 2009 where I met his wife, Sujatha, and their three children, Satwika Sharron, Aaron Suhas, and Joy Suchita. What a sweet family!
I saw Srinivas and Sujatha this last Christmas, but it was such a sad meeting. A year and a half ago, Satwika, Aaron, and Joy came to the US to attend a Christian boarding school in Mississippi. Over Christmas break, the Naik children were staying with a family from my former church. On December 23, the home of the host family caught on fire. These three sweet children went home to Jesus, as did the mom of the host family. So when Rochelle and I met with Srinivas and Sujatha who came to bring the bodies of their children back to India, all we could do was weep together.
I remember being at a conference in 2013 where Joy served as my impromptu translator. I wrote about it in a previous post at Light-work. Click here to read about “Praying with Joy.” When I read the last line of that post, it catches my breath! It reads,“It will be fun, in heaven, to learn how Father answered our requests when I prayed with Joy.” Who knew that Joy would be with Father before me. I am the one who must tarry here while she is even now unlocking some of God’s mysteries.
Certainly one of those mysteries concerns God’s plan and purpose behind what has happened. I do not understand. Perhaps I do not need to understand. But then how am I to respond to the painful truth that these three precious young people have been taken from us?
In an attempt to help my grieving friends, Srinivas and Sujatha, who have since returned from Memphis to India and buried the bodies of their children, I wrote a letter. Perhaps it will help.
January 18, 2019
Dear Brother Srinivas and Sister Sujatha,
I cannot help but think of you and your sweet children many times each day. My heart breaks and I am overcome with sadness as I stand beside you from a great distance.
My mind has tried to find an explanation for what has happened, to understand what God is doing. But I cannot any more than I can fathom the mind of God. I am grateful for several passages from God’s Word that have encouraged and challenged me. In them, God has revealed what it is enough for me to know. I share these with you in the hope they will provide a compass for you as you journey on the path God has laid before you.
Here is the first passage: But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15).
When the world grieves the death of a loved one, they do so without hope. For them, there is no prospect of a glorious heavenly reunion. There is but the stark reality that a loved one has been claimed by death never to be released. Death is the end.
For you, as for the Thessalonian believers to whom Paul wrote, your hearts are filled with grief, to be sure. But this dark grief is challenged by an even brighter hope. You know Jesus as Savior. Swatika Sharron, Aaron Suhas, and Joy Suchita know Jesus, too. And because of this sublime truth, death will not have the last word. Jesus is coming! Sharron, Aaron, and Joy will accompany Him. We who are alive in Christ when they return will meet them in the clouds. We will enjoy a glorious reunion and dwell in one another’s presence for all eternity. This is our surpassing hope!
So as I feel a wave of grief washing over me, I look into the future. My heart swells with joy in the knowledge that I will see your precious children, radiant and well, greeting me in the presence of our Savior. We grieve but for a season. Ours is a grief that gives way to hope.
Here is a second passage that has captured my heart as I have thought of you: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18). Your hearts are in pain and that pain will never fully recede for all of your earthly days. I am sure there are moments when sorrow feels like a great wave that threatens to wash over your soul and overwhelm you. But according to this verse, the depth of your suffering, great though it be, cannot compare to the heights of glory that awaits us. Knowing the greatness of your suffering, and knowing that, despite its greatness, it is not worthy to be compared to the greatness of future glory, how great must this glory be? I cannot take its measure, but knowing this, I am encouraged.
There will come a day when all our suffering, including what you are experiencing now, will seem small and insignificant, by comparison. In that future, you will have surpassing joy that makes the sorrow you now feel fade into insignificance. We look toward that day!
The previous two passages talk about our future and give us hope. This third passage talks about the present: And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You (Psalm 9:10). David wrote this Psalm and tells us something about “those who know Your name.” To know someone’s name is a biblical expression for knowing someone’s character. To know God’s name is to know who He is, what He is like, and how He behaves.
So what do we know of God’s character? The most striking portrait is found at the cross of Calvary. On this hill, God sacrificed His own Son who died in our place. You, Srinivas and Sujatha, more than most of us, know what God’s heart experienced when His Son was sent to the grave.
Here is something our omnipotent God cannot do: He cannot love us more than He does! The death of His Son on the cross for our sins is the proof! He loves us, loves us enough to sacrifice His Son on our behalf. This is who He is: The God who could not love us more than He already does.
So when David says, those who know Your name will put their trust in You, he is explaining that our trust in God is strengthened when we remember the cross. There will be moments when it is hard to trust God because your heart aches. In those moments, look at the cross and remind yourself, “God loves me enough to sacrifice His own dear Son to pay for my sins. The God who would do anything to promote my good, this is Who He is. How can I not trust Him?” Do this, and your soul will be drawn to a place of peace that defies your sorrow.
Dear friends and fellow-servants of the Lord Jesus, may God replace your grief with hope and help you trust in His name. We are standing with you in prayer and looking eagerly for Jesus’ return with your precious children at His side.
Pastor Jim Fleming, “Jim-Uncle,” and Rochelle, “Mamma”
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