Question: Dear Sir, How can I learn to cope with the death of my 31 year old son who was not a Christian? I accept his death, etc., but I am tormented daily when I think about where he’ll spend eternity. How can I deal with this?

Answer: Let me say that I feel inadequate to answer your question, but I will try to provide some thoughts that may help. I suppose that the first thing to consider is that God bears the burden with you. He also loved your son, and all the world, enough to give his own Son to die that sinners might be saved. The Father does not desire that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). How does God cope with the knowledge that so many of those whom he loves so much are lost? That is a mystery, but God’s infinite power to heal the most severe sadness is not. He will wipe every tear from the eyes of his people (Revelation 21:4). Meanwhile, your awful experience equips you with a unique ability to sympathize with others who suffer severely. And that makes you more like God and Christ!