Faith & Tragedy

Today is one of the those days you want to go to bed and start over. It started with William crawling into bed with us and putting his sweet face right up in mine and looking at me with loving eyes; that heartwarming moment that makes the morning great. That part is what will get me through today. At 3pm today we were contacted by the church we just left that the Music Director, Mrs. Norma Jordan Chavis, was T-boned by a truck yesterday in Rockingham, North Carolina, and God took his daughter home. She stood by my husband's side for three years and led the worship. She was one of the most faithful churchgoers I have ever known, missing only one Sunday in the three years we were there. Norma loved our son William, and he loved her. She was the one person he has mentioned in three weeks that he misses. He was certainly special to her and the feeling was mutual. Norma leaves her husband Cole "Sonny" Chavis; they had no children. In a way, William was her little boy every time he was at church. Norma was 62 years old.
While this is a tragedy in and of itself, we have to remember in a time like this that as a child of God, when we die, it is our time to go. Our work on earth is done. No matter how we die, God is there to help us take the journey from our home here on earth to our new home in Heaven. We have to remember that God's timing is perfect, and that nothing happens that He does not know about. I believe that she is singing with the heavenly choir now, and that she and her mother, Nina Jordan, who died in September 2007, are catching up on the few months Nina has been gone. Perhaps God took Nina so she would not have to bury her daughter before herself. We will never know the reasons why, but we can take comfort that Norma is with Jesus Christ, her Savior and Lord. She has a new perfect body, a fantastic singing voice, and no longer suffers the trials of this sinful and fallen earth. We have much to be thankful for in the fact that God allowed her to be here 62 years, and that we had the privilege to know her. She will be sorely missed, and never forgotten. And I personally know that as she sees Jesus face to face, that she has seen my own son, Matthew, face to face, who went to be with Jesus in March 2007.
I hope that as you read this that when you die, you are able to see her one day. You can make the decision that she did so long ago, to trust Christ as her personal Savior and Lord. She knew she was a sinner condemned to hell for eternity, and that only Christ could save her from such a fate. She believed He died on that ugly cross to suffer her punishment for her sins, and that on the third day after His death, He rose to prove He was God, and that someday she and all of us who trust in Him for salvation will rise once again ourselves. You can pray today and turn from your sins and trust Christ as your Savior and Lord. You can believe that He died and took your punishment, and that He rose the third day, that He is the King of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords. Allow Him to take control of your life and turn it around for good. It won't always be easy, but God will be there to help you along. Don't waste another day. You could be T-boned too, and then where would you be?

In Christ's Love,
Jen