She'll see him again
Every mom and dad has at some time or other contemplated how they would feel if they lost a child. I certainly have, and invariably put the thought out of mind very quickly as the mere contemplation weighed too painful to bear. As a church pastor I performed the burial service for two small children. One died of disease at age three; the other was hit by a car while walking home from school. She was six. How do you comfort parents and grandparents in such grief?
The pain of grief changes people permanently. Though the passage of time applies some balm to death's lacerations, grief haunts those afflicted till the day they die. I take immense comfort in the conviction that the agony of such loss will one day be wiped away forever when God restores children to parents in the resurrection of the day of judgment.
I just heard a radio interview with a court artist in which she recounted her most emotional day in court. The victim's statement written by the mother of a sixteen year old boy killed through another's carelessness brought everybody, including the social workers,
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to tears. She recounted the last memory of her son, smiling and saying good-bye as he walked out the door; his face at that moment would be frozen in her memory forever and wake her at night. Hearing it brought tears to my eyes. Then I remembered Jesus' reaction when He saw the grief of a mother during the burial procession of her only son:
And when He came near the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow… When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother (Luke 7:12-15).
Jesus experienced the mother's grief in full; He feels exactly the same today for every one of His children in their anguish (Is. 63:9). This episode foretells the time coming when He will, with tears in His own eyes, reunite all parents with their lost children. Grief will quickly fade into oblivion. |
