...God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5

How quickly life and circumstances can change. My friend began her week as she usually did. She taught Sunday school. She laughed with friends. She cared for her children and grandchildren. Two days later she kept vigil at the hospital as her daughter began her journey toward death.

People ask why. How could she, they demanded to know. Two children. A mother and sisters who adored her. Yet she chose to end her life, distraught in the very real belief that all those who loved her so desperately would be better off without her presence.

I kept my silence. How can anyone who has not suffered deep depression understand the darkness that invades the mind of the sufferer? It isn't something you can shrug off. It isn't something you can toughen up and face. It is an agony beyond explanation. It is an inability to see the light of Jesus and the hope He offers to us all. It is failure to grasp the promise that as His children He will give us strength and healing.

Her illness momentarily separated her from her heavenly father. But she is no doubt singing in the heavenly choir praising Him just as she did in the bright days of her life. As those she left behind struggle to move forward, they draw comfort from that even as they struggle to understand.