He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?— Romans 8:32
In loving memory of a precious young life, and in prayer for his grieving family.
Yesterday, a two-year-old boy from a missionary family I know well in Zambia went home to be with the Lord. His mother had gone out to serve in ministry. When she returned, the boy saw her and ran out to greet her joyfully. Tragically, an accident occurred as he ran to meet her, and his mother witnessed his death.
When the news reached me, my heart broke. What could I possibly say to comfort this family in their grief? I searched for words of comfort again and again, but each time, I let them go. No words seemed sufficient to reach that mother’s heart.
When words failed me, one question came to mind: What must it have been like for God to give up His own Son on the cross? I do not claim to have found an answer. But in front of that question, I could finally breathe. For now, all I can do is what Paul tells us to do: “Weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15)
In John 11, Jesus stands before the tomb of Lazarus, and Scripture records, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). The Greek word edakrysen (ἐδάκρυσεν) describes the shedding of tears. Jesus knew He was about to raise Lazarus, yet He still wept in the face of death. Death is no part of God’s good creation. It is “the last enemy” (1 Cor. 15:26). Our sorrow is not a sign of weak faith. It is an honest response, one the Lord Himself showed us.
In Genesis 22:2, God says to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.” Son, only son, and love are stacked together in a single verse. The God who spoke those words knew what a father’s heart is. But on Mount Moriah the knife was stopped at the last moment. At Golgotha it was not.
When Jesus came up out of the water at His baptism, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). When that same Son hung on the cross, darkness fell over the whole land at midday (Mark 15:33). And the Son cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). The Father heard that cry. He heard His beloved Son calling to Him in agony, and the Father did not turn away from the cross. We cannot fully comprehend the Father’s heart, but we can begin to grasp the depth of His love.
In Hosea 11:8, God says, “My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.” God is not a distant spectator of suffering. He is a God whose heart breaks for those He loves, and that love went so far as to give up his own Son. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). The God who stands beside parents who have lost a child is not a stranger to their pain. In Christ, He entered into human suffering Himself. This is why Isaiah called the Messiah “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3).
Church history bears witness to the tears of parents who buried their children. In 1542, in Geneva, John Calvin lost his infant son, who lived only a few days. In September of that same year, in Wittenberg, Martin Luther lost his thirteen-year-old daughter Magdalena. The men who helped shape the Reformation also knew the heartbreak of losing a child. And God did not forget a single one of those tears. “Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” (Ps. 56:8).
When the disciples tried to keep the children away, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:14). He took them in His arms and blessed them (Mark 10:16). That child is in those arms now, in a place where there is no more pain, no more fear, no more darkness, seeing the face of the Lord.
And this is not a story that ends in separation. Paul writes, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13). The grief of believers is not grief without hope. We have a risen Lord, and when He returns, death will be “swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54). God Himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes, “and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore” (Rev. 21:4).
On that day, the boy will run out to meet his mother again. And this time, nothing will stand in the way of that reunion.
We cannot give answers in the face of this kind of pain. But we can point to the One who is the answer. Rather than striving to explain, let us weep with those who weep.
Would you join us in praying for this grieving missionary couple and for all parents who have experienced the heartbreaking loss of a child? May the Lord surround them with His comfort, sustain them by His grace, and hold them close in the days ahead.
The cross reminds us that God is near in our deepest sorrow, and the empty tomb assures us that this is not the final goodbye.
God gave up His Son. That is why He knows what our tears mean. And He has taken that child into His arms.
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