Many have speculated about what may have happened to Otto Warmbier during the months that he was imprisoned in North Korea. Unfortunately, what materialised between Otto’s pleas for mercy at his televised trial last year, and his death a few days ago, remains shrouded in mystery.
In June Otto returned to his family, but in a much different condition to when he left them 18 months prior. According to the North Koreans, he slipped into a coma soon after he was sentenced. His parents were never informed of their son’s condition until just a few days before he was medically evacuated to the US, severely brain damaged. Just 6 days later, Otto Warmbier died.
One can only imagine the emotional rollercoaster ride that Otto’s parents have been on during the past couple of weeks. Having spent months desperately trying to get news of their son, they were finally reunited under difficult circumstances, and now, they are having to come to terms with his death, with no clearer idea of what caused it, and with the fact that they will probably never know.
In a press conference shortly after Otto was returned to the US, his father, Fred Warmbier said, “I knelt down by his side and I hugged him and I told him I missed him and I was so glad he made it home. These things are tough to process but he’s with us and we’re trying to make him comfortable and we want to be a part of his life.” In a statement he also mentioned the look of anguish that changed to peace soon after Otto arrived home and was surrounded again by the people who loved him.
They had just 6 days with Otto before he died: 6 days to comfort him, 6 days to tell him how much they loved him, 6 days to be close to him. How much more tragic would this story have been had it taken just 6 days longer to get Otto on that plane home?
We recently shared the story of Levi Lusko, a pastor from Montana who lost his daughter. She was just 5 years old when she died in his arms after a severe asthma attack. Of the incredible loss he felt following her death he said “We’ve not felt destroyed by it; we’ve felt deepened by it,” he says. “We feel honored, privileged that God would allow us to suffer. We felt like He trusted us with this trial, and there was a sense from the beginning that God didn’t grace us with the pain, but He graced us with the power to go through it.”
There are countless other examples that I have seen of how gratitude, or a lack thereof, can change the way we see everything. We can only be truly grateful if we believe that, “…in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
To know that God is with us in the fire, and will reveal His plan and His purpose for our lives brings “peace that surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). Without it, we will quickly end up bitter, angry, disillusioned and broken…
I really pray that in the days and weeks ahead, the Warmbier family would cling to the gratitude that they expressed after Otto was returned home to them; gratitude to have seen their son alive again, gratitude that he was able to hear their voices, and feel their touch, gratitude that when he passed away, he was not alone in some cold and hostile place, but surrounded by his loved ones. May Jesus be their comforter and an “anchor for the soul” (Hebrews 6:19).
Louise Carter
Awful story, we just hope one thing, that it will prevent more young people to go to very dangerous places like these.
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