the butterfly effect

i'm sure you guys have heard of the butterfly effect, right? it's chaos theory ladies and gentlemen. but for the simple folk (just kidding, i'm just writing what i read on the internet), the butterfly effect is when the flapping of a butterfly's wings in one area of the world causing a tornado in another...or basically when one small thing happens, it causes a large thing somewhere else.

i don't personally believe in that kinda stuff, but i experienced a little bit of it tonight. psychologically at least.

this week, my (our) friend anais gomez died tragically. she was 20 years old, and it always hurts to bury a friend that young. not that burying your old mother or father doesn't stink, but burying a "kid" really stinks. it reminds us though that life is fragile.

i stood in the back of the standing room only service tonight listening to pastor steve walker talk about difficult opportunities (crisis) and remembering the good times we had with anais.

i'll be honest. my heart hurt. my mind struggled. my eyes welled with tears and my lip was quivering. but then john told the story about anais where she jumped into crater lake. and then he tore me to shreds when he reminded me of how anais used to tie her chucks from the top to the bottom. i lost it. what a unique personality she had. there is NO other anais. and what a shame it is to lose her. to never be able to talk to her again. it is an incredibly sad time for her family, as well as her "other" family at gateway. we mourn together, and we pray for healing.

on the way to the funeral service, i got a call from ben. he and carey had 2.0 today! well, actually, now 2.0 has a name. luke jordan eash was born today. i am so happy for them. ben sounded really happy too!

so was that the butterfly effect? did one loss of a life cosmically cause the creation of new life? no. but it does remind me of something that the bible says in the book of job:

job 1:21 - He said, " Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."

there is a cycle in life, and we are born and die. that's the way it is. we are born under the direction and sovereignty of god, and we die in the same way.

it's all good... :(