GRIEVING FOR KAE

"Kae Davantes is missing :( . Let's pray she is well!" Carla, my former student, texts me Saturday evening.

I wake up Sunday to Facebook posts saying Kae is dead. "Her body has been found."

"Justice for Kae Davantes" black ribbons start flooding Facebook. That was when reality hit. 

You must have read the news: "Young woman's body—strangled, with multiple stab wounds—found in Silang, Cavite." 

I found myself grieving for Kae. She was one of my most intelligent and creative students. Kind, humble and sweet, she was nonetheless competitive. She belonged to a batch which valued reading and came to exams armed with memorized but carefully analyzed texts.  

But I grieve even more because of the senselessness of her death—budding greatness so easily snuffed out. I grieve because around us are evil people with nothing but evil intent. 

They force us to cower in fear. They force us to avoid going out so that we'd prefer being in the dark. They force us into panic mode every time we see one suspiciously attired. 

And yes, they force us parents to fear for the safety of our children. That's why we endlessly remind them: 

Be careful. Do not talk to strangers. Always call or text to let us know where you are. Don't stay out late. Pray. Ask God's angels to protect you.

Yet, evil still has its way! 

God, what happened to Kae—or for that matter many young lives being shamelessly and brutally taken for whatever reason—is so hard to understand! Why so much evil in the world?

Who else could we turn to except the one who created us. He reminds us through the psalmist (Psalm 73:16-18): 

"When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight. Until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction.…" 

I'm no longer afraid for Kae because I believe in my heart she is in the presence of Jesus whom she acknowledged as her Lord and Savior; and He will take the perpetrators to account.

What the enemy meant for evil, what the enemy tried to steal—all these are nothing compared to the glory Kae is now experiencing in the presence of Jesus.

But God doesn't want us unaware. We are in the last of the last days and of this, he warned (2 Timothy 3:1-5): 

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

"They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth."

He reminds us too (1Thessalonians 5): "REJOICE always, PRAY continually, GIVE THANKS in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Whatever the enemy wanted to steal from Kae could never ever be stolen. She is now in a plaçe of complete safety, free from fear or pain or threats—in the arms of the who died to give her eternal life. 

Originally published as "Grieving" at: http://cbnasia.org/home/2013/09/grieving/id-10068121/