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Thursday, October 27, 2016

God is Grieving With Us

  It was costly to the Lord that Roderick had to leave this life early but how amazing that we still know that God can turn it all into something beautiful.  Roderick stepped into heaven on March 14, 2016.  Nobody who’s entered the gates of heaven wants to come back.  Even if he left this world, say a hundred years early, comparing that to eternity it’s nothing and it’s just a moment until we will join him.  So Roderick’s not missing out and God’s work on earth will not be stopped. He will only use what the devil has meant for evil for our good.  So then why is it so hard for us to understand?  Why is the pain so intense?  I don’t have the answers to these questions but I do have some thoughts.  I know that in the cycle of life, which God has created, we all long to have full lives and see our grandchildren grow up, then when we are old and our work seems to be done we start having a longing to go home.  Again if we happen to leave early, we don’t loose out but it goes against nature.  When our aged grandparents go to be with Jesus it is still sad to see them leave us and we definitely miss them, and I would never even pretend that their lives are in any way less valuable, but at the same time we rejoice with them that they get to go home and rest after their long journey and hard work on this earth.  Both my Grandmothers and my mother-in-law expressed a desire to go home before they went to be with the Lord.  Now if our children are torn from us it goes against nature and something is torn from our life that is extremely painful.  It’s like a young branch being torn from a tree verses an old tree falling.  OK it doesn’t quite make sense but I hope you get the picture.  It goes against nature for parents to have to bury their children.  In my experience the pain is different and harder to deal with.
   What I really wanted to focus on is how much the Lord cares for the families that have lost a loved one whatever their age might be.  I am amazed again and again how the Lord will go out of His way in so many ways to show or send comfort both in our family and so many other families that have experienced it.  I’m trying to figure out how to word this so that you can actually understand it with your heart.  Because every special thing the Lord does seems so normal after it has happened even though before the prayer is answered it seems impossible. 
   Jake had a couple of weeks of almost sinking into despair and God sent Roderick to him in a dream, just showing Jake how happy Roderick is.  When the images in the forefront of Jake’s mind were all about the body so lifeless underneath the earth in the cemetery or his lifeless body last seen in his room, and it just didn’t seem possible to dig up those happy images of Roderick in heaven, God sent Roderick to Jake in a dream showing him that Roderick is actually alive and happy. 
   One morning about a month after Roderick left, I prayed “God I cannot have Roderick back but please could You continue to show us how he has impacted lives” and that same day we received a card by mail with a letter of how Roderick’s story and the service had dramatically impacted their lives. 
   God will bring the strangest yet most awesome thoughts of comfort.  One time while helping out my sister I was praying for God’s favour in their family and two days later she shared how incredibly God had shown His favour and done a miracle in their life and I just broke down crying and quickly picked up the book that I had just read “Heaven is for Real”.  I turned to the page where Colton told his mom that he had seen God shoot down power when his dad was preaching.  I said, ‘Roderick saw God shoot power down when I prayed for favour for my sister”.  Since that I often pray that God will shoot power down to whatever I’m praying for. 
   Another way the Lord has shown His compassion is just by blessing the things we do to help us in our grief journey.  When a friend suggested doing a Roderick Rempel floor hockey tournament to raise money for a scholarship in memory of Roderick we jumped in and helped with that.  It was such a good way to again celebrate Roderick and it helps to keep him close.  Our goal was to raise $2,000 dollars on that first tournament, if we could do that we did well.  God multiplied that by 10.  It wasn’t like we needed all that money but God just wanted to send down more kisses, more hugs and more love to show us that He really really cares and He used people to do it.  Loving, compassionate, kind people. 
   Another time I wanted to do a bon fire for Roderick’s classmates, since that’s what Roderick had intended to do this spring.  With the encouragement of a friend I did it even though it was summer and I knew a lot of them were traveling.  I thought if a couple of Roderick’s friends show up we would have fun.  Well, thirty kids showed up.  Again God used Roderick’s friends to show us how much He cares.
   Just after Roderick left I walked into the bank and the lady at the teller looked me in the eye and said something very kind and compassionate.  I walked out and asked my sister, is it really that obvious that I’m grieving, she said, "I don’t think so why?"  Well the lady in there was a complete stranger yet she looked at me with such compassion and kindness, what she said made me feel like she knew.
   I could go on and on of the people God will send to show compassion.  The most unlikely yet such loving and compassionate people will come give a hug or say something encouraging.  I find so many out of the ordinary things happen and God makes them happen in out of the ordinary ways or places so that we will not miss His love.  Having said that though we can sometimes still be so rapped up in ourselves that we miss it. 

   After telling all these stories I realize we should be the happiest people on earth to be so surrounded by love yet it is so painful and we miss Roderick so very much.  I don’t understand why it has to be this way but as pastor Jono encouraged us back months ago at Roderick’s service, we choose to focus on the statements we know to be true rather than on the questions that we can’t find answers for.  And the truth is that God loves us so very much and He wants to be up close and personal, every life is valuable to God and heaven is for real.  God is grieving with us.


2 comments:

  1. Lisa everything you have said and done have made Heaven so much closer and this week I have needed that. You are such a blessing to me.

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