1 Corinthians 2:9 “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
When we find out we are going to be a mom, we instantly think of what kind of mother we want to be. We know we will have a huge impact on this child’s life. From the moment our children are born, we start out teaching them. We start with the basics when they are babies and eventually instruct them on many of life’s lessons. We are the teachers and they are our students. I can’t help but think how those roles are reversed after our children have moved on to their new home in heaven. That verse takes on a new meaning after the death of a child. They have seen God and walked with God and talked to Him face to face. Our children’s eyes and ears have seen what God has prepared for them. Oh, what they must want to teach us and show us when we reunite with them in heaven. They will be our instructors and we will be their students. They have knowledge that our limited minds struggle to understand. Our children have seen things we can only envision. We believe “absent from the body, present with the Lord.” Our children are in a different place, a place called heaven. We are human though and in the darkness of our grief we want them here with us. In the book “Now is Eternity,” the author describes our struggle with our belief and our unimaginable grief. He writes, “We find ourselves in darkness, yet we live in light; we know sorrow, yet we have joy; we are burdened, yet we have wings to meet our God, the eternal light and life of all creation. This is our joy now, and in this joy we shall remain. We must fight; we must hold the standard high; we must let the light shine forth.” How can we let the light shine forth when we are in such deep grief? We can be grateful. We can be grateful for how they blessed us even though we had to let them go way too soon. We can be grateful for the life they led and for the new life they are now leading where there is no pain or tears. Even in the deep pain of our soul, we need to be grateful, for the opposite of loving our children and feeling this anguish would have been to never have known them at all. They are in heaven. And someday we will be there too. I can only imagine what that day will be like for each one of us.
Lord, I pray for each mom as we celebrate the gift of knowing our child. You blessed us with them and for that we are thankful. I pray that our lives will be filled with the understanding that you have plans for us, “plans to prosper and not to harm us, plans for a future and a hope.”
-- Michele
