We hope you enjoy this re-post from October 20, 2013. Be blessed! The Today’s Quote From God Team

The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; and merciful and devout men are taken away, with no one considering that the uncompromisingly upright and godly person is taken away from the calamity and evil to come [even through wickedness]. He [in death] enters into peace… – Isaiah 57:1-2, Amplified Bible

I’ve lived enough life to have seen my share of death, both at a distance, and up close and personal. Every now and then, those who pass suffer what many would label an “untimely” death, and those they leave behind almost instinctly ask the question, “Why?”

Lindra Givens’ death prompted many to ask, “Why?” I graduated from college with Lindra in 1994. She was a godly young woman, and I remember well that when many fell to the temptations of secular university, Lindra stood by her God without fail. Just a year or two after we graduated, I heard through a mutual friend that Lindra had passed away suddenly, but peacefully, in her sleep. I, like many others, wondered why a life so filled with promise – especially promise as a faithful servant of God – was snuffed out in its mid-20s. One friend remarked that Lindra was so “not-of-this-world” that God decided she’d be happier in Heaven with Him. That very well may have been it. But, God could also have taken Lindra home in the spirit of Isaiah 57:1-2.

In Isaiah 57:1-2, God teaches us that sometimes He brings His children home at an odd time in order to keep them from suffering calamity or evil. The evil might come from outside forces. Or, the evil might come from within as the once faithful servant backslides into sin. Regardless of the source of the trouble, the trouble was to be so great that The Lord, in His wise and loving judgment, thought it better to bring His child home rather than allow His child to face the pain that was to come.

Only Heaven knows why Lindra, and those godly servants like her, get their call to Heaven early in life. But, there is special comfort in the notion that, at least in some cases, God takes His people home “early” in order to protect them from tribulation that would have otherwise befallen them. By plucking them from impending trouble and rewarding them with eternal peace, God puts into action those tremendous words of comfort we find in Jeremiah 29:11 (AMP):

For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.