Going Home

A little boy died last night. He had been really sick for several years. For the last few years he and his family have gone through so much suffering. I wonder why God didn’t call him home sooner. Why put them through all of this?

I wonder if life on earth is meant to be like going away to college.  Every fall, freshmen get dropped off by their loving parents at college dorms. Within a short time, many students feel overwhelmed, homesick, and miserable. They call their parents and ask them to let them come back home. Most parents will tell their young adult children to hang in there, despite the difficulties, because there is so much for them to learn.

God, our parent, drops us off on the campus of life, knowing it will be a struggle. We call on Him to say we are stressed out. We wish God would just let us come back home.Yet he tells us we still have much to experience, and others have things to learn from  us as well.

This little boy’s struggle has taught the rest of us many lessons: To appreciate every motor skill--from swallowing, talking, and walking, to being grateful for our abilities to see, think, and function, and to cherish every day with our loved ones. These lessons are meant to be shared with our fellow students on this campus of life. We all have much to learn from each other before we a graduate from this world to the next.