The Mercy of God

After worship today I stopped by the home of a friend and neighbor whose older brother's death was reported at church.   A heart broken man told me his 91 year brother who had been sick for a long time took his own life when he was released from the hospital.  The last words he spoke were from behind a closed bedroom door.  His daughter heard him praying aloud, "God, forgive me" and then he was gone.  My friend was heart broken over the death of his brother, but his broken heart was bleeding even more because of Christian friends who spoke of their sorrow that his brother was dead and was in hell.     

I cannot think of any moment that made me so angry at others who see themselves as Christians.  How someone could say such a word to a man grieving over his brother is beyond comprehension.  With a voice broken by tears and anguish, he asked me what I thought.  I told him not to listen to those folks and to know that God's heart had enough mercy and grace and love to take his brother into the arms of the One to whom he breathed his last words in prayer.   

I long ago came to a place of not judging others.  I have enough stuff in my own life which disqualifies me from that role.  None of us can walk in another's shoes and none of us can know the hurt, or the heart of another.  What we can know is that God knows and that God looks at us with a merciful heart and not a judgemental spirit.  In that moment I wanted to shake some sense into some people who see themselves as saints, but instead, I asked my brother if I could pray for him as we stood there together weeping in his backyard.