I love fairy tales like The Hobbit, LOTR, and Star Wars. They are great stories, full of adventure, magic, good v. evil, heartache, and obstacles. Fairy tales almost always end with the words “happily ever after.” But in real life, that’s not always the case.
My youngest granddaughter is nine. Today, for the first time in her young life, she is dealing with death. A classmate and close family friend died last week. How sad and confusing this must be for her to deal with.
Oftentimes, fairy tales are like our life. There is conflict, suffering, good times, evil, and disappointment. There’s a villain… and, a hero. You and I are the hero in our story. Without us, there is no story. Does life end with “happily ever after?” It does… if we rely on Jesus.
“It is a world of magic and mystery, of deep darkness and flickering starlight.
It is a world where terrible things happen and wonderful things too.
It is a world where goodness is pitted against evil, love against hate, order against chaos, in a great struggle where often it is hard to be sure who belongs to which side because appearances are endlessly deceptive.
Yet for all its confusion and wildness, it is a world where the battle goes ultimately to the good, who live happily ever after, and where in the long run everybody, good and evil alike, becomes known by his true name.
That is the fairy tale of the Gospel with, of course, one crucial difference from all other fairy tales, which is that the claim made for it is that it is true, that it not only happened once upon a time but has kept on happening ever since and is happening still.”
Frederick Buechner: Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale
The Chronicles of Egydyus Flombosi 
That is hard for a child. Hopefully your granddaughter has some of your faith.
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Yes, she and her mom and dad have much faith in the Lord. So does the family of the little boy who passed.
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As a bereaved parent myself, they have a tough road ahead of them to accept what has happened. I was a member of The Compassionate Friends for several years back in the Nineties to get through my grief. In the end, I felt it was alright to be angry with God because of my son’s death. I also, after listening to many stories of loss, realized that I had 19 years of memories of my son up until his death.
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I don’t think it’s right to be angry with God but I am certain God understands when we are angry with him. I don’t fault you at all for those feelings Rich. God can handle it. I am certain I would react the same way.
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