When I got home from the airport last night, Cathie and I told Madeline about Janet's death. We didn't know what to expect. Madeline broke down and we held her in our arms for an hour while she sobbed. She would stop for a minute and ask some amazing, insightful questions about when she would see Janet, or why God wouldn't protect her. It broke our hearts and we were crying too. This was one of those times where words just didn't do any good - a lot of holding Maddie and loving her. A little while later I went and told Nate what had happened, and he came in, put his arm around his sister and did an amazing job of comforting her, telling her that it was okay to be sad, and that Janet was in heaven with Jesus. The rest of the evening, she would cry here and there. She talked about Janet a little more throughout the evening, still very sad. This is one of those kind of hurts you want to protect your kids from - to take the pain from them.
I wonder if God feels this way about us when we hurt? I sometimes wonder if in his infinite knowledge is God able to rationalize our pain away because he has the big picture view of life? Does God weep when his kids hurt? When I became a dad, I thought I'd gained a new understanding of how God feels about his kids - and now I'm not so sure.