November 20, 2007

Somehow, right now, it seems appropriate to start blogging again. Who knows if I wll write more than once, but I guess I need a place to say the things I am experiencing right now.

Almost two weeks ago my big brother was killed in a helicopter crash in Italy. He was the pilot of a Blackhawk helicopter and something went awfully wrong, although nobody knows exactly what happened yet. All those around him say that he was an excellent pilot, one who went exactly by the books. His first seargent said that he landed the helicopter in such a way to preserve as many lives as possible.

All that aside, I don't know how to fit this loss into my life. I have been sad before, I have had many losses in my life. There are no grandparents left, almost all of my grandparent's generation have died, but nothing...nothing like this. My brother was 31 years old and he was 6'4", 215 lbs. and seemingly indestructable. The possibility of him dying had never crossed my mind. I got a call on Novemeber 8 that there had been a crash, then the news that he was alive, but seriously injured, then the call that he had not survived.

But...the Lord is faithful. I HAVE to believe that, otherwise there can be no purpose to this. Somehow, somewhere, in some way the Lord's name will be glorified. Already I have seen evidence of the Lord at work in this community, on base and in the community. Everybody who knew Christian, or worked with him, or spent any time with him recognized that he was a man who was singleminded in his life. His purpse, that has been obvious as we pack his things and as we sat in his office, was to honor the Lord in all he did, whether that was to be a good commander/officer, husband, son, brother or friend.