A Prayer for Randy Wood:

(by Bruce Popper)

Dear God,

 You never said that a prayer had to be a bunch of religious words strung together perfectly for you to listen… that we could simply talk to you like we do to one another.  Your Son, Jesus, who is a part of you, also said that where 2 or more people are gathered in His name, He would be there.  Well, today we qualify for that so we know you’re listening.

 Two weeks ago, nobody in this room had any idea that we’d be gathering this afternoon to say goodbye to a young man that was deeply loved by family and friends.  Yet, here we are… and as we sit here today, many of us have our own personal questions for you, such as why do bad things happen to good people, do you really listen to us… things like that. I know a few people who tell me they asked you to give them a butterfly in times of trouble as a sign that you’re listening to their prayers… and interestingly, they tell me that a butterfly flies in front of their face, out of nowhere, at the strangest times. Our prayer is that you talk to each one of us in a unique, personal way that we will understand… it can be today, tomorrow or whenever each of us sincerely asks for your intervention.

There are 3 facts that give me some comfort…

1)   You created a world of opposites which means there is perfect balance… what goes up must come down, for every door that says “Enter” there is another that says “Exit” and where there is joy and happiness, there is also pain and suffering. The more we love, the more we hurt… that balances the seesaw. If we were indifferent, we would be emotionally empty and could never be able to enjoy the fruits of this life.  Today, many of us are feeling incredible pain and loss. Teach us to remember that the ONLY reason we HURT is because we LOVED, and that is a gift in itself… a gift from having experienced Randy in our lives.

2)   Christ died on the cross for all of us… not the people who go to church everyday, not just people that do missionary work, but for all of us.  Nobody on earth is perfect… We’re ALL sinners and will continue to be and Christ’s blood covers us all. Christ paid for all past AND present sins in full.  All we have to do is believe we’re bought and paid for by Christ and we can spend eternity in Heaven with you.

3)   As your children, we’re never truly going to understand some things that happen during our lifetimes.  We interpret unanswered prayers as a “NO” from you and frankly, that isn’t the answer we’re looking for when we come to you. However, as a parent, I’ve said “no” to my kids when they’ve come to me with certain requests.  My answer wasn’t to punish them, but was based on a bigger picture that I could see and they couldn’t. So, as our Father, we need to trust that your decisions are based on a much bigger picture, a more significant game plan, a Master plan that we’ll never understand during our lifetimes, no matter how hard we try.

Whatever master plan is in place, we now know that Randy is a valuable piece of it or you wouldn’t have taken him back for your purposes so quickly. And when you pass Randy and his brother, Greg, fishing together in one of your golden lakes, let them both know that they will always continue to live among others on earth… through precious memories.

In closing, we want to thank you God for having shared Randy with us. He impacted us in such a way that we now hurt… because we loved him. We pray that you will ease the pain as quickly as possible for all of us and comfort the aching hearts of Randy’s greatest treasure… his family:  mom Lorraine, father Bob, son Danny and his mom Sheila, sister Jeri Ann and her husband Don, brother Brad, Brad’s wife Linda and their children Sam and Duster and all the other members of this fine family.

Please bless us all today in a special way as we need you more than ever.

Amen

Back