We have often noodled the both/and – the cognitive dissonance we feel when we must process difficult experiences in the same moments as joyful ones. Examples are feeling happy about something in our personal life while hearing news of a terrible situation occurring elsewhere in the world. The examples lately are endless as we learn each day of horrific world news, and yet, interact with our loved ones over pleasant meals and enjoy the simple pleasures of daily life. Sometimes the extreme feelings can both relate to the same personal situation. How can we do that?

We have pondered this challenge and know that only with unwavering faith in God through Yeshua’s intimacy who is in it with us can we attain equilibrium, and that is not easy to accomplish, nor do we succeed all of the time.

Recently, the passing on of Jacob Halzel and the unspeakable deaths of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, as well as their mother Shiri, have brought this especially emotional challenge to the forefront for me. These events have also elevated the larger conversation of the times we are in and the need to actively acknowledge the reality of, the need for, God in our lives.

Gary and Betsy Halzel have been kind enough to share with me extraordinary experiences that have accompanied Jacob’s passing. From Jacob’s impact on the Laskos in their recent trip to Disneyworld with their Superhero Max, to Jacob’s pioneering the model of treatment of handicapped and severely disabled children in the wider Messianic Jewish community, to his being perhaps the first Jewish person identified as Messianic to be allowed to be buried in a Jewish cemetery, to the flowers on Jacob’s grave miraculously appearing beautifully through the snow – God is revealing His Presence miraculously, to a level beyond what we’ve even experienced until now.

The loss of Jacob has hit all of us deeply. Yet we are uplifted when hearing of these realities. They allow us to see God’s Presence in a situation that otherwise is a painful loss to us in this realm. These events related to Jacob’s life and passing enable us to see and cling to the greater reality of God’s Presence in the day-to-day, and so help us overcome the natural feelings of loss that just come by our being human. To the contrary, when I experience the loss of those precious Bibas babies, and their mother, I’ve had nothing to help me process this sadness, and worse, mitigate the anger we naturally feel for the barbaric, humiliating, sadistic, deaths of these precious ones, and the hideous spectacle that occurred even after their deaths.

Until synchronistically the day after receiving the uplifting information about Jacob.  Teri sent me more detail about the failed Hamas bus bombings in Israel last week that detonated at 9 PM instead of 9 AM which bombings would have caused massive loss of life had they occurred during the morning rush hour. Bus after bus, no injuries. The chain of miracles related to that incident are detailed in the information Teri sent to me. These miracles occurred on the heels of the horrific return of the Bibas babies’ bodies. God’s Hand in thwarting Hamas does not minimize the trauma of those precious lives lost which is inexplicable, incomprehensible, heartbreaking, traumatic. Yet the bombings happening just when they did and punctuated by the double rainbow in Tel Aviv at sunset where the bodies were transported help us to remember He is still with us when it is so challenging to do so at such times. The miracles are to encourage us to try to remember the bigger picture – He is here and life is eternal with Him.

As Noah knew, the rainbow, and its promise, is real. God’s got our backs even when we can’t see it, even when innocents must die, as did Yeshua, the Eternal Son, Himself innocent as a child. Parents are supposed to outlive their children. Children are not supposed to be murdered. That’s just how we expect life to be.  So when a child’s death is juxtaposed with the miraculous view we are given of the Eternal, as in Jacob’s passing when alongside the miracles afterward, (and during his life), it helps our fragile human hearts, actually builds their ability to withstand the temporal, and temporary loss we feel.

Similarly, the timing of the thwarted terrorist attack reminded us God is still here with us. He is weeping with us. His arms are around us. Whether death through natural causes or the result of extreme cruelty, Yeshua helps us through it for He’s weeping with us. Whether a legacy of inspiring progress and flowers in the snow or  failed Hamas bombing  and a double rainbow, He is in it with us. Always. It is that assurance which eases our cognitive dissonance when a child dies, a reality that just shouldn’t happen.

One step further in the both/and – even in that reality we can smile at the flowers in the snow, and at the rainbow.

Shabbat shalom.

Diane

P.S. I have received such rich information and pictures from Gary and Betsy about Jacob, and from Teri regarding the Israeli situation. If you would like to receive their original transmittals to me, please let me know and I will forward them to you.