Passings

I don't think it was an accident that a friend started me thinking this week on the topic of passing away.
Death.
I prefer passing away because, I believe every living human being is eternal.
I believe that every human will at some time pass away from this Earth to somewhere else.

My friend was thinking about martyrs in the history of the Christian church she wondered about the ones who, unlike Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, did not survive the trials they faced.

She wondered if their cases were ones not of unanswered prayer or too little faith,
but if they might have been the ones with the prayers that showed a ready heart and complete faith.

I think she's on to something.

It came Friday night. We had just began an all night event with the youth group my husband and I lead. One of our girls in tears shared her 20 year old cousin was battling Leukemia and it looked bad. She was on life support and failing fast.

She told me how her cousin had a hard life. Difficult family life. Mom had died of an overdose last year. Dad was not as supportive as he could be. But this cousin never let it drag her down.
She had a joyful attitude at all times.
Even when she lost her ovary to a cyst and found out that her fertility would be very low, she stayed full of life.
Even when she lost all her hair to chemotherapy, she said she felt freed.
Her cousin told me this girl had a personal relationship with Christ.
She died that night. My friend left to grieve with her family.

I had one thought locked in my head that night. How many babies do you think are in heaven?  Babies whose lives were cut short in the womb. I think there is one more mother for them in Heaven now. I just had a vision of a smiling girl wrapping her arms around a crowd of children gathering around to embrace her.

Or maybe Heaven is even some how more wonderful than that.

The next day little Tripp Roth lost his battle with EB. Two years and 8 months of life. Most of it spend in pain few living human beings have ever experienced.

Heaven is not a punishment. It, in the whole universe and everything beyond that, is the ultimate reward.
Nothing else that can ever be conceived will ever be more wonderful.
Jesus is there, Father God is there.
That's a pretty big idea to think about.

Does every one go to heaven? I don't believe they do, because I believe every word of the Bible.

Everything I know about Heaven as written in the Bible and about these two souls leads me to believe they did. They may even, somehow, be together right now.

Death, beats up the living, if we let it. The separation seems to much to bear. As many older folks will tell you time passes much more quickly than you could ever imagine. The reunion is never too far away.

For those whose loved ones rejected God, I believe even there, God's arm is strong enough and long enough to bring comfort and healing to those grieving hearts.

So there is my 2 cents on the weekend.
I will spend a little more time loving people this week, every opportunity I get.