Written by writer, editor and FCS mother Silva Emerian, Style Session is about fashion trends, style and Emerian’s connection with God. Published since 2015, Style Session returns to The Feather after a year-long hiatus. Style Session will be published bi-monthly and Emerian’s previous works can be viewed on her Feather author page. Emerian also runs her own personal blog, On My Shoebox and can be reached via email. 

I’m supposed to write about fashion, but all I can think about is Kobe.

Honestly, I was never a Kobe fan. For one thing, I’m a die-hard Celtics fan. I grew up in Boston and everyone knows Boston sports teams are the best (fight me). If you want to talk basketball greats, let’s talk about Larry Bird. Bird’s rivalry with Magic Johnson – the Celtics v. the Lakers – was legendary. So the Lakers were always “the enemy.” Kobe played for the one team I just can’t root for, ever.

We were chatting after church this past Sunday, still in our pews, when my son’s friend turned and said Kobe had died. Even if I didn’t root for him, I was shocked. We had just heard a sermon about the lie people believe that God is holding out on us. The truth that counteracts that lie is that what God prohibits is for our protection. God doesn’t hold out that promotion, that relationship, that college acceptance or whatever good thing to hurt or punish us. God sees the entire picture, all the way down the line, beyond anything we can see.

So what’s the big picture here? Nine souls perished in that helicopter crash. Three young women. Fathers, mothers, daughters, sisters. It’s heartbreaking and devastating. Families are broken. Children will grow up without their parent. Spouses will have to raise their families without their partner. How?

Remember.

Remember that God is good all the time. Our circumstances do not change that. Heartbreak does not change that. Pain and suffering do not change that. Even death does not change that.

Remember to be faithful. We cannot celebrate God only when things go our way. Only when we’re happy. Only when we get what we want. Only when our families are whole. Our faith has to be stronger than our circumstances.

Remember to communicate. You think God doesn’t know what you’re feeling? You think God doesn’t know what you’re thinking? TELL HIM. Tell Him that you’re angry. Yell at Him. Cry to Him. Beg Him to give you strength and understanding and healing and peace. He will answer.

Remember that people care. Whether the tragedy affected you directly or not doesn’t matter. If you are hurting, people care. Don’t keep it in. Reach out to even one person and let them know what you are going through. One way to get through a tragedy is to help each other through it. To cry together. To pray together. To talk about it. To rest in each other’s presence.

Remember that God loves you. He is not trying to hurt you. He doesn’t want you to suffer. He would do anything for you – in fact, He already did. He gave His Son for you. He suffered the ultimate heartbreak because He saw the big picture.

He wasn’t thinking just of that moment on the cross, or of those three days in the tomb. He was thinking of all eternity. And so even that incredible heartbreak was temporary.

If you have a Kobe jersey or Lakers gear, wear it and pray for Kobe and Gianna Bryant’s family. Pray for the family of John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli. Pray for the family of Christina Mauser. Pray for the family of Sarah and Payton Chester. And pray for the family of Ara Zobayan.

Keep praying and remember that when you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, your big picture includes an eternity with a God who will “wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorry, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Rev. 21:4).

~ Silva

Silva Emerian is a city girl at heart, growing up in Boston before moving to California in 2001. With a long and varied background in fashion, she is a writer and editor, a self-proclaimed word nerd, and mom to Silas (FCHS grade 9) and James (FCMS grade 6). Shoes and chocolate make her world go ‘round.

If you have questions or topics you’d like to see addressed in this blog, please email me at [email protected]. You can read more from me at www.onmyshoebox.com.

For Silva’s previous blog, read Style Session, No. 7, 2019-20 – A Confident Look

For more articles, read SPLC presents third annual Student Press Freedom Day, Jan. 29 or Hannah Villines uplifts basketball team, leads varsity players