In Bryant’s death, God was not being unfair

By Al S. Mendoza

DREAMS do not always come true.

Sometimes they happen.  Sometimes not.

Most of the time, they don’t.

But if it does not happen, it does not mean God made it intentional.

It does not mean God wants to frustrate, disappoint, you.

It does not mean God does not love you.

When we dream of something, it’s like we are writing God and asking Him, requesting Him, to grant our wish, our dream.

It’s like we’re praying, fervently, that God grant us our dream.

But, alas, God doesn’t give an answer.

He doesn’t answer our letters.

And, worse, He doesn’t write letters.

The postman doesn’t ring twice; he never arrives.

Like us, God also loves to take his own sweet time before he acts.

Sometimes, we make conditions.

Or, we ask for signs He is listening.

A friend of mine—I think I already mentioned this here already, but what the heck—told me he asked God to make his son pass the bar exams.

“I went to our Lady of Manaoag to ask for her intercession to request Jesus Christ to make my son a lawyer,” my friend from Quezon Province said to me.

Good move, I told my friend, also a lawyer. 

“You know what I offered our Lady of Manaoag in return if our Lord Jesus Christ made my son pass the bar?”

His son is an only child.  Unico hijo.

“I’d go to Manaoag every Saturday for one whole year,” my friend said.

The son was unaware of his father’s prayers.

The son flunked the bar.

The father was sad.  But he was not devastated.

“I told my wife if it’s God’s will, let’s accept it with open arms, with an open heart,” he said.

To show his sincerity, my friend still continued to go to Manaoag every Saturday—not just for one year but in the succeeding year. 

In his son’s second attempt at the bar the following year, he passed.

It’s been years since.  The son is now a father himself, blessed with two young boys.

What am I driving at?

That our dreams may not come true today—and even forever.

But it doesn’t mean God doesn’t love us.

May I cite Kobe Bryant, the basketball legend from the NBA (National Basketball Association) who had just met a tragic death by a helicopter crash.

He was only 41 years old, just retired five years ago, and was barely starting to enjoy family life with his four daughters and wife, Vanessa, when he died on January 26.

Tragically, Kobe died in that crash with his daughter, Gigi, and seven others, including a lady basketball coach with Filipino parentage, Christina Mauser, and two of Gigi’s basketball teammates.

Gigi—Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant—was 13 whom Kobe called Mambacita.

Bryant went by his famous basketball nickname “Mamba” and Gigi was going to be the future female version of him.

In Bryant’s NBA world, Gigi was the baby in his father’s arms who grew up to help hoist her father’s MVP trophy, and listened to every basketball word her father had counseled on her.

Gigi was all set to play at Connecticut en route to the pro league: WNBA.

That plan vanished in a flash.  Just like that.

God’s unfair?

Her father’s dream when he was a boy came true as Kobe became one of the greatest players of the game.

But his dream for Gigi—Gigi’s dream, too, of course—was catastrophically cut short.

God does not only answer letters.

He also does not provide explanations.  

Learn to live with that.

And God will love you more.

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