It’s 5 AM and outside our house in Saboba, it’s too quiet. This time last Saturday morning you could hear our hospital chaplain’s children sweeping our yard, picking up leaves, and making swirling patterns in front of the house with their brooms. Leading them in these daily chores was Godson, the fourteen year old first – born son. Once the children finished sweeping, they would come in for tea and bread and for teasing by Uncle Bob. But nobody has swept since Saturday morning.
Saturday afternoon, Godson and some other boys had finished helping his grandmother on her small farm and decided to play in the shallows of the River Oti. Oti is a dangerous river with sandbars alternating with sudden drop – offs into deep spots and a swift current. While going after a ball that had been tossed to him, Godson stepped off into one of these holes and drowned! Chaplain called us in tears and we rushed with him to the river side. All we could do was to pray and watch with hundreds of others as those who knew the river searched for Godson’s body. It took nearly five hours to retrieve the body, and they buried Godson Saturday night. Chaplain and the family are still at the family house in their village on the road to the river.
Godson was everything you could ask for in a son. Godson was handsome, bright, hard – working, perceptive, and imaginative. Godson was a problem solver who took initiative. Godson also was a loving and protective big brother for his two younger sisters and his younger brother. At home, Godson was helping care for Chaplain’s animals. Godson was a good student and highly intelligent. Godson was respectful and obedient.
Godson was a Christian and had been baptized at age twelve. Many times Godson had joined his family in prayers for us, prayers that we treasured.
We have lost a Ghanaian grandson. Godson was a bright spot in our lives, particularly for Bob. We are close to Chaplain’s other children, but we were particularly close to Godson.
When tragedy strikes, the natural reaction is to ask God “Why? Why Godson with all his talents and his great personality? Why now?”
Psalm 139:16 tells us, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be.”
On many occasions when I have lost patients, God has told me that the day that person was born, He, God, knew the day that person would die. This means that the day Godson was born, God knew that Godson would die last Saturday, February 13, 2021. As I prayed for this situation, God asked me this: knowing that Godson was to die that day, was drowning as bad as some other means? Godson’s body was not mutilated. Had Godson been struck and killed by one of the many vehicles now plying the streets of Saboba, his family might have been left with the memory of a broken body. And God showed me something else also.
As I prayed, God showed me that Godson had fulfilled the purpose for which God had created him. For fourteen years Godson was the best son that he could be. How many of us can honestly say that we are fulfilling God’s purposes for our lives?
A favorite pastor friend who is now with Jesus used to tell us, “We are only in advertising. God is in management.” At the end of the day, we have to accept the sovereignty of God. And there’s another lesson here as well.
God sent his only Son, his first – born, his perfect, handsome, charismatic Son, to be a sacrifice for our sins. For thirty – three years God watched, knowing that Jesus would have to die on Good Friday. We are about to enter Lent, a time in which we consider Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. Lent is a time for soul – searching and for drawing closer to God. If our hearts ache at the loss of Godson, how much more did the Father Heart of God ache as He sent Jesus into the world? How much does the Father Heart of God ache when those who should love Him refuse to do so?
1 Corinthians 15:51-58 tells us, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
Job was a rich man with many children who lost everything in a series of catastrophes. When Job’s friends came to comfort him, their thoughtless platitudes only made things worse. But Job said, “But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.
I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25 – 27)
On Saturday February 13, 2021, Godson stepped from the River Oti into eternity with Jesus. Godson fulfilled the purpose for which God created him. We who are left to mourn can only ask God to “teach us to number our days, so that we will get hearts of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)
PRAYER: Father God, thank you for Godson! Thank you for allowing us to know him and love him. Comfort all those who are grieving and strengthen them. Let all of us learn everything we are supposed to from this tragedy. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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