A teacher’s toughest lesson.
by Diane Stark
“Diane, Michael’s mom is here to see you,” the school secretary said, interrupting my kindergarten classroom one Monday morning.
I turned and looked at the secretary. “I’m teaching right now. Can it wait?”
“She really needs to see you,” she insisted.
Interruption
I left my students in the secretary’s care and made my way to the office, feeling a bit frustrated at the interruption, especially since Michael was absent from school that day.
Be patient, I reminded myself. His mother, Michelle, was young and unmarried, and Michael was a special-education student with several health issues. His mom worried about him, and she’d frequently call me with her concerns.
But she’d never pulled me away from my classroom in the middle of the day.
Human reaction
When I walked into the office, the principal ushered me into a private conference room.
“He’s gone,” Michelle said as soon as she saw me. “I couldn’t wake him up on Sunday morning. The doctors don’t know why, but Michael’s gone.”
I could feel the tears spilling down my own cheeks. My college professors hadn’t taught me what to do if one of my students died. So I reacted, not as a teacher, but as a human being.
As Michael’s mother collapsed in my arms, I cried as though Michael had been my own child.
Spiritual struggle
Telling a room full of six-year-olds that their classmate had died was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. They wanted to know why. I simply didn’t know.
Despite my Christian faith, I struggled with Michael’s death. I found myself crying at odd times and asking God why this had happened. I believe in God’s promises. One of my favorite verses is Romans 8:28, where God tells us that He uses all things for good.
But I couldn’t understand how God could use a child’s death for good. I asked the Lord to give me peace and help me trust Him through this situation. Most importantly, I asked Him to give me the words to say to Michael’s mother.
Strange funeral
I attended Michael’s funeral a few days later. Not many people were there. Nearly all were family.
As the pastor reminded us how much God loves us, a man in the back stood up and shouted, “No, He doesn’t. If He loved us so much, He wouldn’t have taken Michael from us.”
A shocked silence fell over the room. The pastor swallowed and then continued with the eulogy. The man interrupted him twice more, once to say that God couldn’t be a loving God and again to call the pastor a liar and a fool.
It was the strangest, saddest funeral I’d ever attended.
Hard questions
The following week, I stopped by Michelle’s house to give her some of Michael’s artwork from the classroom. “What did you think of the service?” she asked me.
“Uh, it was nice,” I stammered.
“My uncle interrupted the pastor. What did you think about that?”
“Uh . . . ,” I stammered again, unsure of what to say.
“We’re all looking for answers,” she said tearfully. “It’s just that Uncle Steve didn’t ask for them in the right way.”
I nodded. “I’m sure this has been really hard on all of you.”
“Look, I know you’re a Christian and that you believe that stuff about God being loving and good,” Michelle continued. “If that’s true, how come He took Michael from me? How come He allowed Michael to be born sick in the first place?”
Guided response
I swallowed hard. I’d just been asked the hardest question in all of Christianity. If God loves us, how come He allows bad things to happen to us?
I felt my eyes fill with tears. I didn’t know how to answer her question, but I knew a lot was riding on my answer.
Lord, I thought in desperation, I need Your help.
“Look, I don’t know the answer to your question. I know it doesn’t make sense that God would take him away. It doesn’t seem fair, even to me. But I believe in my heart that God loves you even more than you loved Michael. And if you let Him, He’ll help you get through this.”
“But I can hardly get out of bed in the morning,” she said, breaking down.
“You don’t have to,” I said. “At least, not by yourself. God is not the cause of your pain. He’s the solution for it. I know it’s hard, but trusting Him is the best decision you’ll ever make.”
“I just can’t right now,” she whispered.
Healing and hope
Over the next few weeks, I visited Michelle several times. Then one day, she asked me not to come anymore. And who could blame her? It wasn’t like I could actually help her.
On the last day of school, Michelle showed up for our end-of-the-year celebration. I hugged her and told her I missed her.
“I missed you too,” she said with a genuine smile.
When I looked in her eyes, she seemed different. Not healed, but definitely healing. I saw hope there too, and wondered if Michelle had found the answer she’d been searching for.
Meaningful talk
We went out for coffee after school. There was no small talk. What I needed to know was too important.
“So how are you?” I asked. “I mean, really.”
Michelle smiled. “I’m doing well. My mom took me to a grief recovery group at a local church, and there was a mom there who’d lost her son as well. She was sad, of course, but she had such peace about it. She spoke about God’s plan as though she still believed in that stuff, even after He took her son. I didn’t understand, so one day I just asked her, ‘How can you still love God after what you’ve been through?’”
Michelle took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. “That mom told me that she didn’t know why these things happen and that she didn’t have all the answers. Then she showed me this verse in the Bible that says that God collects all of our tears in a bottle [Psalm 56:8]. And I realized in that moment that God really does care about my pain.”
Trusting God
I nodded because I couldn’t speak past the lump in my throat.
“So I gave my life to Him,” Michelle said. “Not because I understand why He took Michael, but because I trust Him anyway.”
I hugged her and said, “I am so glad, Michelle, and I’m sorry I wasn’t more helpful to you while you were searching.”
“You did everything you could. I wasn’t ready to hear the truth then, but God was working on me that whole time. You were planting seeds, Diane, just by caring about me.”
I learned that day that God is greater than our grief and the worst that can happen to us. I also learned that having all the answers is God’s job, not mine. All He expects me to do is care in the midst of hurt and trust Him for the results.
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