On top of great joy.....

....comes the Great Sadness. For any who have read the book "The Shack", the main character, Mac, is struggling what he refers to as the Great Sadness. Mac and I have that in common, me not constant, but today again, it reared its ugly head. Mac had been on a camping trip with his kids, and had to leave his young daughter alone at the campsite to rescue his sons who had fallen out of the canoe and were possibly drowning. Wait, it gets worse....After he had saved them, he went back to the camping area to discover that his little girl is nowhere in sight. She has vanished into thin air, and found later to have been killed. Mac was eaten alive with the Great Sadness. As Anne H., Nancy M., and I were driving to the LWMS Rally, Anne received a phone call from her husband, Pastor Hoyer, informing her that the young girl from their congregation, Hannah, had succumbed to her brain cancer and died that morning. Only yesterday had I written to her parents via CaringBridge and left a message of comfort and support. Today, I left a message of sympathy and support, through the Word. Anne said, as we parted company today, that the Lord has a use for me. I hope I can be of some assistance to them from now on....