It hurts, but hope prevails.

When we first went to work with the boys at the ranch, we never considered that burying them would be something we’d ever have to do. But the harsh realities of life for many lends itself to tragedies like the one we’ve experienced this week.

Ronnie came to us an angry, hard, anti-God, anti-authority, hurting young man. It took some time and loving patience, but eventually we began to see that he was opening up to us and God was drawing Ronnie to himself. He wanted no parts of it at first. His life was his own and he could take care of himself, or so he wanted to believe. After church one Sunday he was especially agitated and miserable. I called him over to where I was sitting in the recliner and quietly said “I can explain why you’re so miserable if you’d like.” He sat down on the floor next to me and began to listen. He was such a thinker. He was not going to make a decision without thinking it through and it being his own. And there were things he wasn’t giving up for anyone, not even God. I explained that God was not as concerned with all of that as he might think. We talked of Christ and His love, what He desires to do in a person’s heart and life, and how insignificant all those things become in light of eternity. I assured him Rog and I loved him, God loved him and that wasn’t going to change regardless of what he decided.

Weeks went by. There was confrontation; there was firm, loving discipline. There was acceptance and understanding. One night as they were heading to their rooms for bed after being a bit rambunctious in a fun-loving way, I yelled down the hall, “Good night you knuckleheads! I love you!” He stuck his head out of his room and yelled back, “I would have told you I loved you back if you hadn’t called me a knucklehead!” There was a big smile on his face.

It was a late fall Sunday morning not long after, that I stayed home with a couple of boys that were sick while Rog took the rest on in for church. About the time church was over the phone rang. It was Ronnie. My first thought was “what are you doing on the phone and where are you calling from?” since unsupervised phone use is not allowed. But he laughed and explained, “Brother Rog let me use his cell phone. I wanted to let you know I got saved this morning.” He was too excited to wait until he got home to tell me. I was elated!

Were there still some challenges to overcome? Yes, but we saw a drastic change in him. There were a lot of old habits, a lot of old friends, that made it hard to completely and immediately break away from some things. Ronnie left the ranch the following July but continued to keep in touch with us. He came to church quite a few times too. I talked to him on his 18th birthday in March. Rog saw him just a few weeks ago in the mall.

On Saturday morning we received word that Ronnie had been stabbed and killed in his sister’s home. His mom had left a message on my cell phone after leaving the hospital. Ronnie didn’t go looking for this. He wasn’t out on the streets getting into trouble. He wasn’t out partying or carousing. He was at his sister’s watching a movie. But trouble knew where to find him. Past connections don’t always stay in the past. The young man responsible for bursting into the home and drawing him into this altercation has been arrested and charged with murder, but Ronnie is still gone. His mom asked Rog to handle his funeral.

We are shocked, grieved, but comforted at the same time. I don’t question, but I do wonder about God’s divine plan. Last July when we returned to the ranch after our days off to learn that Ronnie was no longer there, I went to his room to look, think, pray. Sometimes when they leave we don’t ever see them again. His things were all still there. I would have to pack them and ready them for a worker or relative to pick up. His Bible was open on his desk to what had become a favorite passage of Scripture that we talked about often:

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

This may seem to fly in the face of all that has happened, but not really. For what is our future and hope as a believer but Christ Himself? Praise the God of all grace, the Giver of faith and hope. There are no hard cases with God. He will save all those who come to Him. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37