Every year, the translator at our pediatric hospital asks this question:
What are the four hardest words to translate?
He will pause for a moment and then say,
Your child is dead.
Every time I hear it, I wonder how many times he has had to say that phrase. Every year, I think the tally must be a little higher.
Fixed in every medical provider’s mind are similar moments of unsettling and stunning grief. Death, crippling injury, and disability rarely happen in the dramatic TV show ways. They are ordinary and commonplace. A car accident left one child with a few scratches but instantly killed his sibling. The seasoned pediatric surgeon who told me the story was visibly distraught by it; he said, “Go home and hug your kids tight tonight. I will.”
A two year old drowns in the kiddie pool in the backyard. A newborn has brain cancer. A girl with Down Syndrome develops leukemia. “What are the odds that these tragedies can happen?” you may wonder. I can tell you. [Read more…] about Reasons: Why I am a Christian Part 2