Family Dreams Part I: From our Daughter, Alexandra
Some of you know the losses G & I have had over the years.
Ultimately, our little family of 3 is the joy of our existence. However, there are those days where we dream of another child to join this petite famille! (Recently that is often for me.) That day has not yet come and as each day goes by, I choose to trust that my Father knows best. Like those times that I must say no to Buddy, not out of a lack of love but because of love. For now, maybe for all our days, the answer has been no.
We do however, have three precious faces waiting to meet us at our Final Reunion. My parents book, Happy Together, reminded me of this the other day. Here is an excerpt.
When our youngest daughter and her husband put their house up for sale, they had a number of people view it. There was one couple from an Eastern background who were familiar with artefacts having meaning rather than just being ornamental. As they passed the dining room table, the wife noticed a centrepiece with three candles and asked if there was some meaning for that display. For most of us in the decorating mode of Western culture, the answer would probably have been: "It's just an ornament."
In this case, the answer would have been wrong. Alexandra and her husband had been trying to have children for some time, and the last three pregnancies had resulted in miscarriages. Most would have put these behind them as part of life's misfortune; after all, our culture considers the unborn child as a non-person, with no human rights or significance. However, Alex kept these three candles as a reminder of the three children that she had lost, despite the fact they had not been born. Apart from giving honour and respect to the unborn, they kept alive another Christian belief--that of final reunion.
Those three children that God took home to be with himself for reasons best known to him, had not been lost--they will be there to greet their parents in the place where all tears will be wiped away. None of us who have lost children or other loved ones in the Lord will be deprived of a final, complete and eternal fellowship with them. That is why we "do not grieve like the rest who have no hope" (I Thess 4:13-14). The reunion with Christ and loved ones who have gone before is one of the most precious expectations of all Christians. We may look back at events in life with sorrow, but we look forward to that final reunion with joy.
Are you shedding tears because of loved ones you have lost? My prayer is that you can rest in that knowledge of seeing them again because of their faith in Christ. It is what gives me hope for this family, ultimately a family of six, some already resting in the lap of Jesus.
