Psalm 23 and a Dwarf Hamster

Ruby, our beloved dwarf hamster, died tonight in a tragic cage accident. Sophie was the first to find Ruby dead and she let out the kind of scream that only a grieving 6-year-old girl can scream. That was about 2 hours ago and it set me running upstairs to a sound I will never forget. All three of my girls are asleep now, but only after many tears, prayers and a family reading of Psalm 23. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me." (verse 4) God's Word is truly comforting. It comforts in all sorts of encounters with death, even the death of a pet hamster.

Ruby's death was a big event in my family tonight, but obviously it was not one of the world's major events today. All around the world tonight, people are grieving over much larger tragedies that have occured in the last 24 hours. Yet tonight in the death of our little brown hamster, I find myself particularly offended by the presence of death in the world. It's just not the way it should be! When God made the world, it was good and there was no death. And then sin came and death came with it. And so tonight, people in Baghdad cried over a dead MP and a dead suicide bomber in the green zone. And at the same time, two little girls in Superior, Colorado cried over a dwarf hamster carcass. It all hurts. Not to the same extent in every encounter with death, but it still hurts. In many and varied ways, the presence of death in the world hurts and reminds us that things in this world are not the way they should be.

Praise God that death has been defeated in the death and resurrection of Jesus. And praise God that death will not always exist as such a harsh reality in the world. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (Revelation 21:4) God's fallen creation is not what it once was. But one day soon, heaven and earth will be made new again and death will not be there! With that hope, this daddy is now going to sleep.