Trusting God’s Timing Through the Tears
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven… a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
— Ecclesiastes 3:1,4
Grief doesn’t wait for an invitation. It crashes into our lives like a wave, often without warning—and in my case, it came with a phone call that shattered my world. My father, my hero, had been killed in a car accident. Just like that, the man who had once jumped out of airplanes with the 101st Airborne, graduated college against the odds, walked the halls of political power as a lobbyist, and rose to become a top salesman, and a family man was gone.
I remember the funeral vividly. As I stood over his coffin, I leaned in to look at him one last time. I studied his face, trying to memorize it, afraid to forget any detail. My heart ached with questions. Why now, Lord? Why him?
But grief, while cruel, has a strange way of leading us back to grace.
Fast forward to 2007. I was working at the White House—a dream I carried in part because of my father’s belief in me. One day, I received an email from one of his former clients. He invited me to lunch. Sitting across the table from this man, I was taken aback when he said, “I feel like I’m sitting across from your father.”
Goosebumps rose on my arms. I felt a warmth, a closeness to my dad that I hadn’t felt since the day we buried him. It was as if God reached down through the years and reminded me: He’s not forgotten. And neither are you.
After lunch, I walked back to the White House gate, my heart full in a way that surprised me. My boss noticed the tears on my face and asked if I was okay. I nodded slowly and said, “I just had the best day of my life.”
The pain of grief had not vanished—but it was now pierced with purpose.
I don’t pretend to understand why God allows our hearts to break. But I know this: His timing is perfect, even when it feels unbearable. He sees the end from the beginning. The seeds of sorrow planted in the soil of faith will one day bloom into joy.
God used my father’s legacy to touch me even years after his passing. He orchestrated a moment that reminded me that who my dad was still matters—and so do I.
If you’re grieving, don’t rush the process. Don’t minimize the ache. Instead, bring it to God. He knows the weight of loss. After all, He gave His only Son for us.
But also—wait. Watch. Trust.
God’s timing rarely makes sense in the moment. But one day, when the pieces come together, you’ll see the fingerprints of grace all over your story. Just like I did.
Heather S. Wolf