South African author, Alan Paton, wrote a powerful novel that was first published in 1948. CRY,THE BELOVED COUNTRY is the story of a father’s search for his only son, who had left the rural African hills to pursue life in the dangerous city of Johannesburg. The boy’s name was Absalom, reminding us of another son who had departed from his father long ago. How David longed for things to be right with this handsome young man, but it would not be. A father’s broken heart cried out when news came of a violent death. “Absalom, O Absalom. Would it were I who died in your place!”
Last week I stood next to another grieving father whose son lay in a rose covered casket. This father was my uncle and his son was my cousin, Paul, who took his own life. A broken world produces such tragedy and we ask “why?”
There is another Father who weeps. He wept when a son and daughter first brought sin into the world and He weeps today. It is not God’s will that men destroy one another. It was not God’s will that my cousin destroy himself. In a dark world, Paul must have felt there was nowhere to go. The voices around him shut out the Voice of the One who constantly says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” This One’s love went further than the cry of King David… He did die in our place.
I have few words to comfort my hurting family, but I do sense the broken heart of a Father… and I cry.
“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.’” Luke 19:41-42
“See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” Malachi 4:5-6