Article July 26, 1999 Issue

God's love removed my grief

How I prayed after my brother passed on

By Tiendi Joseph Ngalim

When my junior brother passed on, it was a sad time for the whole family, and an especially difficult trial for us, as his passing occurred in a neighboring country at the height of his business career. He was a young man with a wonderful character who fitted in everywhere. Great tumult among the people of the village and in our entire family resulted from this sad news. No one was able to give us Christly comfort, to say, "Weep not." The more friends talked to me, the more I accepted their views of my brother as lost to death.

Asking myself why such a loving and hard-working brother had to be separated from us when we most needed him at home, I could no longer control my bitter feelings. Hardly had I begun to weep further when Christ's comforting message challenged me with these words: "You did not love that child more than God." This was a complete embarrassment. I had always loved and praised all his efforts. How was my love for him different from God's? How did God love him? These and many other questions led me to look for a more spiritual standpoint.

The Bible tells us to love one another because love is of God even as God Himself is Love (see I John 4:7, 8). Loving others is natural. We cannot truly love without God, however. Our love for others must begin with Him. We have to recognize the spiritual bond of love that keeps man and God forever united. Man, created in the likeness of God, is the complete idea of Love; his being is indestructible. As the perfect idea of Love, man is never lost but has always been loved and kept by God; he cannot escape immortality. Gradually, it became clear to me that human love has limitations. The separation we were seeing was strictly material, whereas this young man, as a spiritual idea, was inseparable from us as well as from God, his perfect, creative Principle.

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