What can I say

This past week has been one of stark contrasts.
For Debbie, Melissa's sister it has been devastating. Her husband Ray was killed in a farm accident leaving her to bring up a young family. I was going to add 'on her own' to that last sentence but I'm sure that will not be the case - there will be lots of support from the family and others - but that's not the same. Sharing your life with someone special is a wonderful gift and the loss of that someone will be felt for a very long time.
I visited Debbie's blog site where she had left a very brief but very moving message and was amazed that in a few short days 400 people had left messages of support. It was encouraging to see how many recogonised that prayer makes a difference in these situations and had told Debbie that they would pray. I don't know Debbie well, having only met her a few times, but I feel very touched by her loss and have assured her via M&M that we too would be praying.
A verse that comes to mind is 'The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord'. I guess He knows what He is doing. I'm not sure what age Ray was - certainly a young man who could have expected to live for many many years - but it was not to be.
On the same day when we heard of Ray's accident we were on our way to help Granny Robinson celebrate her 100th birthday. Her 9 children (the eldest in his 80's himself) had invited about 100 people to Cultra Manor for Sunday lunch. It was a lovely occassion - we enjoyed a beautiful meal, were entertained by some of the grandchildren, and heard some glowing tributes to the guest of honour. Two of her children had come from Australia (Ballarat and Geelong) and two from the west coast of the US to be part of the celebration. Messages of congratulation were read from the Queen, President McAleese and many other dignitaries. Many of her children and grandchildren are involved in christian ministry and they came across as a really close and caring family. They had come through some tough times in the early years as they had helped pioneer the Pentecostal movement in NI but God has poured out His blessing on them for their faithfulness. Granny Robinson is still fit and well and is in accomodation wher she mostly looks after herself - and looks like she has many years still to go.
It was also an amazing week from a NI politics point of view. Tuesday 8th May saw devolution restored to NI with an assembly headed up by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness. Over this past few months there has been a real transformation in the relationships between DUP and Sein Fein politicians and most people are cautiously optimistic that this time the assembly will work!
In the last two elections - when the most extreem parties got the greatest percentage of the votes, I and many others thought it was a backward step in getting our problems solved. No one could imagine that they would ever sit down together and even talk about addressing the issues. But, surprize, surprize, God still knew what He was doing! In the past we have only had the centerist / middle of the road parties talking together and, had they come to an agreement, the extreemests would still have been sitting on the sidelines snipeing away at every decision that was made or worse still - going back to violence. Now that the extreemists have come together in a coalition the prospects for a lasting peace are much greater. Why didn't I see that??
So, Debbie, God is still in control, even if, for the time being that seems hard to fathom.
God Bless.