Joy From Tragedy

     Way back in 1918, my grandmother, Esther Gehret Kauffman, suffered a major tragedy in her life.  Her husband, Pastor Horace Abraham Kauffman, was visiting his sick church members during the Spanish Flu epidemic.  Suddenly he was stricken with the deadly flu and a few days later he died.  She was left with a son, my father, who was a little over one.  She was pregnant with a second child who would be my aunt Ellen.  She had nothing else - no savings, no home and certainly no insurance. Now the district superintendent recognized her need and felt that she had to quickly remarry.  So he asked two young single ministers if they would consider marrying her.  One said no, the other said yes.  And so my real grandfather's close friend, N. H. Wolf, became my step-grandfather.  I've often thought how devastating these events must have been for my grandmother.  She had just lost the love of her life, she was pregnant and suddenly she had to marry another man.  But God gave her a godly man, the most godly man I have ever known.  And little did she know then that she would eventually be the mother of four, the grandmother of 13, the great grandmother of 21 and the great great grandmother of 30+.  And many of these descendants would end up serving the Lord around the world, both in full-time service as well as in lay ministries.  What a fantastic heritage. 

      Several days ago we received a call that my cousin and her husband from Wisconsin were making a brief, unexpected trip to this area. They hadn't been here for many, many years. We arranged to have them visit with us and 13 cousins and spouses enjoyed a wonderful evening together.  As I was preparing for our time together, I suddenly thought how thrilled Grandma Wolf would have been to realize that almost 100 years after her tragedy,  some of her second generation descendants would be enjoying Christian fellowship together.  And I wondered, if her husband had not died, how different would our lives be?  Would two of my dad's sisters ever have been born?  That could have eliminated at least six of those who gathered that night.  And if her second husband had not been called to churches in Sunbury and Bethlehem, her children might never have met their godly spouses from the Wise, Derck and Smock families.  I had never played that "what if" game in my mind before, but suddenly I realized that many of us who attended that night might never have been born or married to our spouses if Pastor Kauffman hadn't died. 

     It thrilled my heart once again to understand that God's ways are always right, even when we can't see the future.  He can, and it is all in His hands.  And so the tragic death of Pastor Horace Kauffman was used to make us family.  And I have such a special godly heritage and such wonderful folks in my extended family.  I can't think of what life would have been without them.  But it was because of another death, the death of Christ on Calvary, that all 13 of us who gathered are also in God's family and because of that we could have such sweet fellowship together.  And we did!  It was a very special evening that we won't soon forget.  But how much better heaven will be as we share eternity with out brothers and sisters in Christ. But even more importantly, we will be with the One who has designed our paths and directed us along them, both in times of joy and in times of sorrow.