Saturday, February 8, 2008, almost six in the morning~
Dear Journal~
The other day I wrote I was so happy; this morning I started thinking about my friend Dominic Brownwood, and now I am sad. He was killed Tuesday night during the height of the terrible storms that crossed into our area. He was only twelve years old, just a little younger than me.
I don't know why he had to die: he was a good kid, rather quiet, but the kind of kid who would give you the shirt off your back if you needed it, would give you an encouraging word, even a smile, if he felt that was what you needed. He thought of other people first ahead of himself.
Dominic was killed when a tree fell on him when he went to put his bike away. Paramedics tried to save him; they couldn't. It was too late. Of course, as you can imagine, his family must be devastated. I know I would be if I were them.
His funeral is on Wednesday. It will be held at our church. Dominic Brownwood was loved by many members of the congregation; it is going to be so hard to say goodbye to him! I do plan on going to both the wake (that's on Monday and Tuesday at the funeral home) and then the funeral on Wednesday.
It is often said that there's a reason why God allows things to happen; however, I still wonder why He allows such bad things to happen to good people. That is, why children or babies die before they even begin to live, why there are things like war or violence, why people get sick with awful diseases (cancer, ebola, AIDS, muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy, Lou Gehrig's, etc.).
I guess He has His reasons for allowing this, but it doesn't make sense, no sense at all!
One day the answers will be revealed to us when He comes back, but until then, there are a lot of people who are left scratching their heads! I guess He does this as a way to test our faith, but sometimes I wish He'd back off a little bit!!
A guy can only take so much heartache!! (And believe me, that is one thing I know very well! I've had a lot of bad stuff happen to me over the years!)
Well, I am going to go back to sleep. Saturday, you know. No school. I will write in here again some other time; take care and God bless! Good night!
~Love, your pal, Johnny. :(
