Do some things happen for a reason?

I’ve always had a hard time with the “things happen for a reason” school of thought. There are too many horrors in this world for me to easily accept that there’s a grand plan into which everything fits.

Still, I was led to wonder this weekend. During a huge crying fit over losing Bernice, I was saying to Marc, in between moments of hysterical mourning, that I couldn’t believe the first people who had her returned her. “How could they be so cruel to her? She was the sweetest girl, and she loved the world. The idea of her bonding to a family and then their returning her. She must have been so horribly crushed.” I wailed, “How could they do that to her?”

Then Marc and I said, at pretty much the same moment, “They didn’t deserve her! If they couldn’t give her the right home, then they didn’t deserve her huge, unconditional love!”

That made me wonder. Could there be more? I don’t know. There’s still so much that’s horrible and cruel in this world, but did something greater say, “Bernice, as you’ll come to be known, you deserve better than these people. There are two guys who are going to love you for all your goodness. You hang in there, girl, and they’ll come for you!”

I still don’t know, but I like to think so. A bright, shining beacon of love has left our world. I sure hope we see her again somehow, someday, but for now we hold her in our hearts, pained beyond measure but knowing we were lucky she came into our world!