Richard and I have been reading to each other from the book, “Call to Duty, the Sterling Nobility of Robert E. Lee” which we bought on our visit to Gettysburg. One passage is taken from a letter General Lee’s wife wrote to General Butler who had written to comfort her on “the untimely death” of her husband—
You speak of my husband’s “untimely death.” We must not deem that untimely which God ordains. He knows the best time to take us from this world; and can we question either his love or wisdom? How often are we taken from the evil to come. How much of care and sorrows are those spared who die young. Even the heathen considers such the favorites of the gods; and to the Christian what is death but a translation to eternal life. Pray that we may all live so that death will have no terrors for us.
I couldn’t help but compare what she said to our situation of loosing John at such a young age and find both tears and comfort.
