My daughter sent me a link to the news report about two American missionaries who were recently killed in Haiti.
Suffering is a required course in God's curriculum for his children. You can't live for Christ and not have a time of suffering in your life. Bonhoeffer once called suffering the badge of the true Christian. "Suffering means allegiance to the suffering Christ," he wrote. "And it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called to suffer."
I am grieved by the deaths of this young couple. I am rejoicing that they are in the presence of the One they loved and served so faithfully. They are yet two more examples of what it means to belong to Christ. I hope we are teaching this truth to our children and grandchildren.