A year ago today, two of my dearest friends and co-workers in Christ at Scammon Bay, lost two of their boys in a drowning accident to the Kun River. Reichel and Reaman Uttereyuk were only 10 and 8 respectively. Reichel drowned trying to rescue his younger brother, Reaman, who had slipped and fell into the River.
The faith in Christ that was supernaturally manifested in the parents of these two boys through such a difficult time was more than amazing. As Scammon Bay is a Yup'ik village of only 500 people, nearly everyone is related in one way or another to one another... cousins, aunts, uncles, in-laws, and etceteras, so the death of these boys was something that touched everyone in the community.
Seeing John and Carolyn Uttereyuk's faith during this time, the peace that was supplied them by our Lord Jesus Christ, a peace that passeth understanding, was a tremendous comfort and encouragement to me. I couldn't possibly know or understand what John and Carolyn had been going through in all this, and as their pastor, I could have easily slipped into grief and helplessness. Yet, to hear my dear brother John comfort members of the community saying, "God is good," allowed me to proclaim God's truth with even more boldness.
Because of this ALS condition... (and it looks like I do not have a rare, "slow degenerative" form of the Lou Gerhig's Disease as once thought, just the early stages of the regular ALS)... I am sometimes sought to attend funerals where my presence, with an incurable, untreatable, and fatal disease, might be "a comfort to others." Sadly, I hear professing believers, even preachers, who say such stupid and faithless words as, "They're looking down upon us and they'll be waiting for us." What BLASPHEMY!
If the departed loved one is with the Lord, as the Scriptures do declare of those who are His (2 Cor. 5:8), then they are NOT looking down at us. They are beholding the eternal excellence, the breathtaking beauty, the magnificent majesty, and the infinite glory of the King of kings and the Lord of lords, Jesus Christ. Their gaze will be fixed upon the Lamb of God and they won't turn to the left or to the right.
God is good and all God does is good. And He brings us reminders of His goodness through such people as the Uttereyuk family, through such circumstances as the drowning deaths of two young boys, through His awesome Word, which stands forever...
I am tremendously grateful that what had taken place a year ago, allows me to continue to preach, albeit in a greatly reduced capacity, passionately of the reality of Christ and Him crucified... and because He is alive forevermore, I rejoice. I do rejoice.
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