We come to You because we do not know where else to go.

We come to You with more questions than affirmations.  We want to ask, "Why now?" "Why them?" 

We cannot accept the glib answer that You need them for some angelic choir more than we need them here.  It is not so.

We cannot ~ we will not believe that it is some direct act of will on Your part that these young persons should die so soon.  You would not tease us with promising futures, only to snuff out these lives before any fullfillment of their dreams.

We want to quarrel, but must confess that the mystery of life and death is beyond our mortal minds. 

But we still come, in spite of questions, in spite of anger, because our pain is such that we need Your love and need Your comfort and need to feel Your presence more than we need answers that will not satisfy. Hold us close to You, close to each other and close to those we have lost.
 
Even as our own grief seems too much to bear, we remember those for whom these deaths are far more personal. We pray for their families, for those for whom life will be forever changed, where empty chairs and empty rooms and silent instruments will be constant reminders of their loss.
 
But, we also come to be reminded that we live in the afterglow of Easter. We have proclaimed that Christ is risen, that death has been conquered, that life continues beyond the event we
call death and we claim the promises made that in life and in death we belong to You, brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore Your children always.  Amen
 

SOUND BITES is a free, five-day-a-week e-mail ministry in memory of Dustin Wilkinson, 1982-1998.  Rev. Dave Wilkinson is founder and editor. SOUND BITES originates from First United Methodist Church in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA. "The world is our parish." Visit our web site at