Sorrow Is Part Of Life

Sorrow Is Part Of Life

One of life’s saddest experiences is to lose a child in death.

MARTIN LUTHER, the father of the Reformation, married Katharina Von Bora, a former nun, in 1525. Luther and Katie, as he called her, had six children, Hans, Elizabeth, Magdalena, Martin, Paul, and Margaretha.

In 1542 when Hans was sixteen, the Luthers sent him to Torgau to school because Wittenburg did not have an appropriate school for his education. Scarcely had he arrived there than his thirteen-year-old sister, Magdalena, became deathly ill. Martin Luther wrote to Hans’s teacher:

My daughter Magdalena is nearing her end and will soon go to her true Father in heaven unless he sees fit to spare her. She longs so much to see her brother, for they were very close, so I am sending a carriage for him, in the hope that a sight of him will revive her. I’m doing all I can lest afterwards the thought of having neglected anything should torment me. Please ask him to come at once, without telling him why. I shall send him back as soon as she has either fallen asleep in the Lord or been restored to health. Farewell in the Lord.

Hans returned home, but Magdalena’s health continued to deteriorate. Luther prayed, “Oh, God, I love her dearly, but thy will be done.” Then he asked her, “Magdalena, my little girl, would you like to stay with your father here and would you just as gladly go to your Father in heaven?”

She answered, “Yes, dearest father, as God wills.”

It grieved Luther that in spite of all the blessings he had received from God, he found himself unable in this situation to give thanks.

On September 20, 1542, as Magdalena’s death drew near, Luther knelt at her bedside, praying through his tears that God would receive his little one. Katie stood at the end of the room, unable to watch as Magdalena died in her father’s arms. Turning to his grieving wife, Luther said with compassion, “Dearest Katie, let us think of the home our daughter has gone to; there she is happy and at peace.”

As Magdalena was laid in her coffin, Luther remarked, “My darling, you will rise and shine like the stars and the sun.” Then he said to Katie, “How strange to know that she is at peace and all is well and yet to be sorrowful.”

To his friends who came to mourn with him he said, “Let us not be sad. I have sent a saint to heaven. If mine could be like hers, I would gladly welcome death at this very hour.”

Luther wrote the epitaph for her grave:

Here, I, Magdalena,

Doctor Luther’s little maid

Resting with the saints

Sleep in my narrow bed.

I was a child of death

For I was born in sin

But now I live, redeemed, Lord Christ,

By the blood you shed for me.

Three days after her death, Luther wrote a letter to his friend Justus Jonas:

I expect you have heard that my beloved Magdalena has been born again into Christ’s everlasting kingdom. Although my wife and I ought to rejoice because of her happy end, yet such is the strength of natural affection that we cannot think of it without sobs and groans which tear the heart apart. The memory of her face, her words, her expression in life and in death—everything about our most obedient and loving daughter lingers in our hearts so that even the death of Christ (and what are all deaths compared to his?) is almost powerless to lift our minds above our loss. So would you give thanks to God in our stead? For hasn’t he honored us greatly in glorifying our child?

Reflection

The death of a loved one brings sorrow to everyone. It is important not to deny these feelings. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus even though he knew he was going to raise him from the dead. God intends that we mourn.

And now, brothers and sisters, I want you to know what will happen . . . so you will not be full of sorrow like people who have no hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:13