The tragic news of a suicide does not close a chapter in the lives of relatives and friends; it opens one---a chapter of mixed feelings of pity and anger, sorrow and guilt. And it raises the question: "May we entertain any hope of our family member or friend who took his or her life ever receiving mercy and forgiveness for the act of suicide from God?

Although self-inflicted death is never justified, never the right thing to do, the apostle Paul did hold out a beautiful hope for even some unrighteous ones. Suicide is an unrighteous act in God's eyes. As he, the apostle Paul told a Roman court of law: "I have hope toward God....that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous."

Stunned family and friends of a suicide victim may thus take comfort in knowing that only God can fully understand the role that mental sickness, extreme stress, even genetic defects, in a "suicidal crisis", which the National Observer noted, "is not a lifetime characteristic but often a matter only of minutes or hours (Ecclesiastes 7:7).

Again, while suicide cannot be justified, it is comforting to remember that the future prospects of our loved ones rest with a God who fully understands that weaknesses and frailties could push one to such desperate action. The Bible says of Jehovah: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, His loving-kindness is superior toward those fearing Him. As far off as the sunrise is from the sunset, so far off from us He has put our transgression. As a father shows mercy to his sons, Jehovah has shown mercy to those fearing Him. For He Himself well knows the formation of us, remembering that we are dust." (Psalms 103:11-14). What a loving, tender-hearted, caring God, Jehovah is.