When you lose a child, you may wrestle with God, knowing without a doubt He will win but we are also human. You may ask why did you take him/her away from us so early in life, how could you allow this to happen? Why didn’t you heal or protect my child?
Parents can have a very difficult time getting over the loss and the early death of a child. I know firsthand. It is the hardest thing I have ever had to embrace. We may or may not get the answers to why He allowed Luke to be brought home at such an early age and rob us the joy of seeing him grow up.
However, I can remember when I was preparing the ceremony brochure for Luke’s Celebration of Life, I read something that gave me such peace at the time. I will give you exactly what the words were.
For those of you who have lost close loved ones, these words can give you some peace and comfort. “ Your child or loved one is not only in the past but they are in the future”. Luke is not only in my past but he is in the future. The 10 years we had with Luke is nothing compared to the eternity we will have with him. We have way more time in the future with him than we had in the past.
Luke or your close loved one is no longer in our past. They may have died here on earth but now they are more alive than ever living in heaven with Jesus and God.
We have to continue to press forward into the divine call that he has placed on our lives.
It is so wonderful to know that Luke is now in our future. When we get to heaven, we will be immediately reunited with Luke once again.
Instead of seeing our loved ones dead in the past, we can start seeing them alive in heaven.
Our time on earth is not even a blink of an eye compared to the eternity in heaven.
- But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)
- “… but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)
However, It’s not telling us to try and forget our loved ones but I believe it is saying that we should not dwell on thoughts of them being gone and memories of the past that make us sad but move and press forward to the things God has planned ahead of us. God has a reason for taking our loved ones and now we must seek his purpose for us.
“… he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be a partaker of his hope.” (1 Corinthians 9:10)
We should continue to plow for God with the time we have left on earth. We should plow forward with hope in mind and be a partaker in that hope.
Heaven is going to be the final and ultimate reward for us that are followers of Christ. The Bible tells us that we can’t imagine all the wonderful and great things God will have in store for those who will be entering into his dwelling place.
We will all be given two of the most wonderful and precious rewards when we get to heaven. We will be forever united with God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. How awesome will it be to have direct contact and fellowship with both of them for the rest of eternity!
And then we will be reunited with our saved loved ones. Oh how I can’t wait to hug Luke and kiss him on the head and tell him how much I love him.
Now that’s incredible combination that can’t be beat in my book.
I believe there are times when you may not know why God took your loved one. Maybe that person was going to have something really bad happen and God wanted to spare them the pain of having to go through it. God is bigger and sees the big picture. The Bible says we are to “ know in part”. We will never know all the answers to life’s problems.
And when God does decide not to answer a specific question you may have, then you have to accept the fact that He has a good enough reason not to give you His answer, trust that He knows what He is doing and what is best for the situation at hand – and then move on with the rest of your life the best that you can.
If we get stuck in the misery of the past, we may miss God’s perfect plan and destiny for our life.
Our close loved one is now in the most perfect place imaginable and we will be reunited with them once again in just a very short period of time. This life on this earth is just for a very brief moment in the eternal scheme of things but the life to come, where they are at now, will be forever.
Remember this – your loved one is no longer “dead in your past” – your loved one is now “fully alive in your future” – which is heaven.
