This
past weekend was the 5th
Annual Girls’ Getaway, what my friends from college and I have termed our
yearly trip together. We did a low-key
trip to High Rock Lake in North Carolina; we ate lots of great food, got some
much needed sun (some of us may be a little too crispy) and spent hours
catching up. Every time we’re together,
I swell with happiness and am so grateful for such good people as friends.
While we were having a wonderful
time celebrating our reunion, families and friends in east Tennessee were
grieving the loss of two sweet little boys from a tragic lake accident on July
4th. (See the story on Citizen Tribune.)
I have not been able to get it out of my mind since I heard the terrible
news. My cousin Jamie is the best friend
of the mother of one of the boys, and the fact that I have known Jessica makes
it seem so much more real to me than when I just saw the news on the night of
the accident. My heart is breaking for
the Winstead and Lynam families. Except
for those that have experienced the unimaginable loss of a child themselves, no
one can pretend to understand the pain that these parents are feeling right
now, but no one doubts that it is nearly unbearable.
Over the past 5 days, however, the
facebook pages of Jamie and Jessica have served as testaments to their
incredible faith and examples of the strength of the east Tennessee communities. The families and friends are ensuring that
their loss serves a higher purpose, even if they cannot possibly understand it,
by not losing trust in God and encouraging others to ask questions about the
boys’ baptisms. While their lives will
never be the same without their little boys, these families find peace in the
fact that Nate and Noah are in Heaven, playing together and swimming together
(they probably don’t even need life jackets there!) and wishing they could tell
their families to not be sad.
Please keep these families in your
prayers as they struggle to return to a new “normal” in the weeks and months to
come. And don’t forget to look at the special
people in your life and give them a hug and a big wet one to let them know you
love them. Try not to sweat the small
stuff – as I posted the blog about our moving disaster, I thought about how
petty it seems in comparison – life is just too short.
Most importantly, if you know someone who does not know Jesus
Christ, speak up. As I learned from
Jamie’s fb page, one little boy in Jefferson City has already been saved as a
result of this tragedy. If you feel
moved to witness to a friend or stranger, do so in honor of Noah and Nate.
Until
next time, sending love,
The
Spiveys
