A professor I once had used to say “life is inherently tragic.”  He would go on to explain how death is a part of life, and without one, we cannot have another.  Death gives birth to new life.  Life gives birth to something that will one day die.  

In life, we certainly have our fair share of tragedy.  Both of my own parents died before I was 30.  I have no siblings, and in some ways have had to forge my own way through life.  

We have a friend of ours living with us currently who is a recent widow.  One year ago yesterday her dear husband of over 30 years was taken by the horrible disease of cancer.  She has gone through some real and undiluted pain over the last few years, and is now in a process of recovery.

A child gets killed in an accident, or worse, on purpose.  Death, disease, hunger, and struggle appear all around us.  We nearly become numb to this pain.

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