How strange it is to know that she is at peace and all is well, and yet be so sorrowful!
Martin Luther (following the death of his daughter Lena)

Children aren't supposed to die. Old people, maybe, or the infirm. But children — they're supposed to run and play and giggle and live!

But we live in a world where accidents and leukemia and other forms of deadly violence wrench children from the arms of their loved ones and leave those arms empty and aching. Few crises so torment the emotions as the death of a child.

Cinda Warner Gorman, associate pastor at Fletcher Hills Presbyterian Church in El Cajon, California, tells of her experience:

The phone rang one evening. "This is Dr. Steele," the voice said. "I'm at the emergency room at Grossmont Hospital with the Meeker family. Jarrett hanged himself on a back yard swing this afternoon. They've pronounced him dead. We need you or Steve here."

Those brief, confusing words would mark the beginning of one of ...