Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Nov/91

Contributor - Roland DeVries

Title - Love and Grace in Life and in Death

Topic - Loss

Through the events of my life on Saturday, October 5, 1991, God gave me a renewed vision of his incredible love and grace toward humanity. At 8:20 p.m. my sister, Joanne, and her husband, Brian, became the proud parents of a 6 lb. 10 oz. baby girl by the name of Rachel Arlene Keunen. I also became an uncle for the first time. What an incredible blessing for God to bestow upon the DeVries and Keunen families. Later in the evening of the same day at 11:00 p.m. my grandfather, Roelof DeVries, passed away.

What extreme opposites, within hours of each other. On one hand was the first breath of a new bom child, just beginning its life, with a whole future of new experiences before her. On the other hand was the end of a long, life which had been full of experiences and wisdom as an old man drew his last breath. That evening my uncle Rudy put it best when he said "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away".

What a strange battle of emotions took place in my heart that evening. An unspeakable joy and celebration with the birth of a niece, and yet feelings of pain and sorrow over the loss of a grandfather. These feelings were, I'm sure, even more extreme for my father as he lost a father and at the same time became a grandfather for the first time. It was in the midst of this situation that God made me so much more aware of His grace and love. The following are the thoughts and emotions which I felt on t e evening of October 5, 1991.

In the beginning God created man as the crown of all of His creation. God created man to glorify Him, and to share in fellowship with Him. For a time mankind enjoyed this close communion with God. However, it was short lived. Man in his pride chose to rebel against God. Mankind wanted to be like God so that they would have control of their own lives and would be subject to no one but themselves. It was the fall of mankind into a pit of suffering, hardship, and ultimately death. Before this mankind had no knowledge of pain or death. Being in the presence of God had been all blessing and joy. But suddenly man was cast out of God's presence into a life of hardship and turmoil. My grandfather's suffering and death was a result of this sin of mankind. It was unnatural and painful for my grandfather to die.

But in the midst of the death and suffering of grandfather was the new life and joy of a baby. Rachel was to me a sign of the new life, light and hope that comes to us in Jesus Christ. It was in the midst of man's fallenness, darkness and death that Jesus Christ entered the picture of human history. He came teaching that He was the light of the world, that He had come to bring sight to the blind and life to the dying. In Jesus Christ God entered the world as a man, lived a perfect life, and then died as the punishment for our sins so that we could be declared sinless in the sight of God. Since He came as the propitiating sacrifice for all mankind, we all now have the opportunity to once again take hold of an eternal, perfect relationship with God.

To return to that right relationship with God we must believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins and we must make Him the Lord of our lives. This means that we must follow His teaching in the Bible and follow the conviction of the Holy Spirit in daily living. Through faith in Jesus we can have new life and a hope for the day when there will be 'no more death or mourning or pain,' (Rev.21:4) for the old order of things will have passed away.

My grandfather was a man who had within himself that hope for a new life with God eternally. Indeed his death was a hard experience for all who knew and loved him, yet in the midst of sorrow was the hope and inner joy brought by the name of Jesus, the light of the world. At the same time I saw within my niece, Rachel, the opportunity for her to walk in a relationship with Jesus Christ and to have the same hope that my grandfather had.

God, in his incredible love and grace for us, entered the brokenness of our world to bring us hope through Jesus Christ. On October 5, 1991, through the death of my grandfather DeVries, and the birth of my niece Rachel, God gave me a renewed look at the grace and love He gave us in Jesus Christ His Son.

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