Can you contemplate it?

My last post I talked about my friend Joe who tragically passed away recently. I was fortunate enough (with the help of Big Matt) to make the journey to beautiful Scotland, and see where he worked and lived, meet some of his friends and most importantly, say goodbye to him. The service was emotional, there were highs and lows, tears and laughter, lament and celebration.

I was inspired by my good friend Charlie, Joe's dad. This is a guy I respect, a lot. To be honest I haven't been able to say any thing to him. Anything I could or would say just seems insignificant, meaningless - useless.

But the whole day, I learned things from him. God the Father was in him. As he carried his son to his grave, I saw strength and brokenness. I think it was the saddest and most encouraging thing I have ever seen in my somewhat inexperianced 24 years here on earth.

It made me realise that God's son (and this isn't a direct comparison) was also taken so tragically. I guess the pain that I saw in Charlie suddenly made the words on the pages of the bible come alive, particularly these words:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

When Jesus was dying, he was covered in the worlds sin, God couldn't look. But he knew it had to happen. But with a new perspective, the pain that God felt then must have been ... immense, and I guess it seems a little more real to me now.

But then I started to think about us ALL being God's children, and how God must see such awful things every day. Even now, writing this, I can't begin to contemplate that.

The more things I see in life, the less I try to contemplate it. Why? I think it lets me live more.

And after all, is living in wonder and awe such a bad thing?