The Best Life

I read this story once…a number of years ago, in Europe, there was a terrible accident, and forty men were trapped in a coal mine, where they suffocated to death. Their devastated families gathered at the entrance to the mine, and the spiritual leader of the community came to address the crowd. He hoped to offer words of comfort and guidance. According to author Sidney Greenberg, this is what he said:

“What happened here is a mystery, impossible for us to understand. But I want to tell you about something I have at home. It’s a bookmark that my mother embroidered and gave to me many years ago. On one side, the threads go this way and that, crisscrossed in wild and colorful confusion, and when you look at it, you would wonder if she had any idea what she was doing. But then, when you turn it over, on the other side you see the words ‘God is love,’ beautifully spelled out in silken threads. Now, today we are looking at this tragedy from one side, and it makes no sense. But some day we will be permitted to glimpse its meaning from the other side. Meanwhile, let us wait and trust.”