In Passing

She turned to him, eyes red, and gently patted his knee. "Ben, that makes you the oldest cousin now - on both sides." He remembered his father's wobbly voice in the message left early that day.

Emotion was whirling around him. What if it had been him? They were only two months apart in age, after all. What if it had been his brother? Tears came up.

He thought about his cousin's wife - all alone in a foreign land, family so far away. He thought about his aunt and uncle, who lost a son. He thought about other cousins, who lost a friend. He thought about himself, who would never see a cousin again.

He hadn't legitimately cried in a very long time.

Pain. Sadness. Confusion. How? Why?

* * * * *
Something like two weeks ago, Kelley texted me that three of her chickens died. I thought she was joking. She wasn't.

It turns out that a small gap developed between the chicken wire and wire mesh at ground level - a gap just big enough for young chickens and ducks to escape their protective lair. The dogs were released, as they are first thing every morning. Shuffling. Barking. Chirping. Commotion. Two chickens were found dead outside the fence. One duck lost feathers, but made it back inside the fence safely.

Curiously, it appears that a snake killed the third chicken inside the fence - probably over night. Realizing that the bird was too large for its mouth, the snake must have moved on, leaving the fowl half-eaten.

It took most of that morning for Kelley to finally figure out where the gap was and get it patched up. We're still confused as to how it got there in the first place.

* * * * *
We don't know why or how these things happen. Yet seemingly random events are all part of a divine plan. This perfect, unknowable plan is what runs our lives - each and every one of us. From the death of a relative to the death of a pet, each and everything that happens to us - no matter how trivial - is part of God's plan for us.

We may never know the reasons behind them here on earth, but we can rest in the knowledge that God does. And he is perfect. That makes his plan perfect. And his reasons perfect. One day, we'll be in front of him ourselves on the day of judgement, and we can ask. Until then, we must go about our daily routines, taking the punches as they are thrown.

Such is life.