The hurt was still too fresh. The pain was too deep. Trevor and Elise tried desperately to cope with the events of the last few months; the death of their children. They couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat and there were several trays of food from friends and neighbors spoiling in the refrigerator. Every time Elise fell asleep she had dreams of the catastrophe and would automatically wake herself up. Trevor had trouble focusing at work and when he was home, well; he wasn’t much help or strength to his wife in fact it was hard just to look at each other.
The hurt was still too fresh. The pain was too deep. Trevor and Elise tried desperately to cope with the events of the last few months; the death of their children. They couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat and there were several trays of food from friends and neighbors spoiling in the refrigerator. Every time Elise fell asleep she had dreams of the catastrophe and would automatically wake herself up. Trevor had trouble focusing at work and when he was home, well; he wasn’t much help or strength to his wife in fact it was hard just to look at each other.
Grieving hurt like nothing they had ever experienced and the world seemed to keep moving on without them. They were tired of explaining details to well wishers it just made everything worse. It was hard to believe how much it hurt and found it much easier to be isolated, locked up in their home. The pastor had made several visits, church elders and family had flown in from all over the United States to stay with them but nothing made the hurt go away.
Going to get the mail became an unwanted task, a daily reminder as cards and letters kept pouring in from all over the country as their situation had made the national news. Their only children were gone, they had nothing left to live for, and they even talked about ending it all. One day Trevor picked up a bible he had thrown against a wall during a fit of rage. He looked down at it. It lay on the floor folded open and creased on a passage in second Corinthians chapter five.
“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
“To be absent from the body is to be present with the lord” Trevor kept saying those words over and over again as a wonderful feeling came pouring over him. God spoke to Trevor’s heart that night through the power of His Holy Spirit. Trevor had heard God’s soft voice, speaking to his heart; his children were with Him, safe and completely healed. At that very moment he felt a weight physically lift from his shoulders and immediately he breathed freely once again.
He ran to find his wife and shared the passage. Elise thought for a moment and then the two prayed together.
“Oh gracious God, God of the heavens and the earth we thank you for revealing Your plan to us through Your word. Only You are faithful and true, You are the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Through the giving of Your own Son we are forgiven, totally forgiven. We both thank you for healing our children and for knowing nothing can separate them from Your love! In Jesus name we pray.” They fell down onto their bed, wept and felt as if God had touched them both in a very personal way through His Spirit.
Jesus warned us that in this world there would be trials and tribulation. He went on to say that we should be of good cheer because He has overcome this world. When Pilate was interrogating Jesus, He told him that His kingdom was not of this world. In fact, the apostle Paul said that no eye has seen, no ear has heard what wonderful things the Lord has planned for us to share in eternity. All we must do to receive this free gift from God is to ask Him. The fact is if you have to work for your salvation then it’s not much of a gift, is it?
So if your grieving for a lost loved one, believe with all your heart that God has a plan and nothing can stop it. The Messiah’s return is imminent, right at the gates and soon we shall see His face, our loved ones and His promised kingdom, which is not of this world.
