We were deeply saddened by the death of 17 year old Blaine Waas in a car accident this past week. Blaine was the grandson of Glenn and Evelyn Waas of Hamilton. He lived near Rochester with his parents, Peter and Jo Waas. Death is never easy to take. It’s particularly harsh when it takes a 17 year old from us. Rev. William Sloan Coffin, in writing of the death of his teenage son, writes that when a parent dies you lose your past. When you lose a child, you lose your future as well. I have long since given up any attempt at fully explaining life or death. As the Bible says, "We look through a glass darkly." I am convinced that not all things that happen in this world are God’s will. When the car in which Blaine was riding crashed, I am sure that the first heart that broke was God’s. One thing the family said over and over through this experience was that they didn’t want Blaine’s death to be for nothing. They wanted something good to come from it. For this reason they donated his organs so that others might live. They expressed the hope that the accident might cause other other young people to always buckle their seat belts (Blaine’s belt was unbuckled) and that they should not drive when they are sleepy or tired. I believe Blaine’s family’s sentiments are exactly right. At the heart of the Christian message is the proclamation that God can bring good out of even the worst evil. If the cross of Jesus says anything, it says that.