A smooth sea

Have you ever heard the saying "A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner." I get it. It's kind of like practice makes perfect. You can't pass the driving test just by taking the written test. It makes sense. When Heather and Greg lost Maelee, this saying had a little deeper meaning. It's easy to be a good Christian when you never have any hardships. You never have that faith tested. You never have to worry that the decisions you make are yours or the Lord's. It's easy. The reality of the matter is that no one every has a life without any tribulation. My aunt cross-stitched a little sign for me years and years ago that said in so many words that we are all like flowers. Without a little rain, we'll never grow. Maybe the size of the hardship depends how strong you already believe and trust. It wouldn't make sense to give a 12th grader a 3rd-grade-level test. Maybe there's no rhyme or reason to how great we suffer. Either way, we are tested. We have to trust in God that He will get us through whatever it is that makes life hard. The more we go through, the better we get at trusting Him. I don't know. It makes sense to a degree. Maybe Greg and Heather were such great, strong and trusting Christians that they suffered one of the most heartbreaking tragedies. Of course there is no reason trying to understand why this horrible thing happened to them. That is something only God knows. It's just that it's so horrible that you become desperate to understand why. I guess this is the part where you have to give it to God, take a little rain and grow as a Christian.