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Sweet little Rosie lived in a world filled with color. Everything she saw and touched was beautifully colorful and had an indescribable warmth and brightness to it. Greens, blues, oranges, reds, yellows, purples, and millions of variations of each of those. There was no darkness, no shadows, no depths. Each day she spent outdoors: running, skipping, twirling in the grass and the trees set in the middle of the mountains. She befriended the animals and they trusted her without fear. She had a gentleness and innocence about her that brought joy to every beating heart that came near her.
Her father was always nearby. Sometimes he would frolic through the fields and tumble in the grass and laugh with her; other times he would sit in his chair reading a book as he occasionally looked up and watched her talking and giggling to herself and the animals around her. He had wrinkles around his twinkling eyes and a look of contentment as he looked on her with a beaming joy unparalleled by anything in the universe. She always knew he was near and that he was always waiting for her to be wrapped up in his strong, safe arms. She didn't consciously know it, but it was because of him she knew she could be carefree and joyful day after day.
One day Rosie was twirling to her heart's content in her field, fascinated by the way her yellow dress lifted around her as she went round and round and round, giggling incessantly. Suddenly she stopped and her smile drained from her face. She knelt down to look at something very closely and intently. Her father noticed something was different about the way she was reacting to what she saw, so he dropped his book and came running to her side. He knelt down next to her. Her little brow was furrowed and she looked confused as she tried to make sense of what she was holding in her two little hands. She could see that it was a bird, but it was unlike any bird she had ever seen. The birds she had played with were purple, yellow, blue, and always flitted about her as she ran and played. When she would hold them their little bodies were always so warm as their chests rose and fell, catching their breath from flying. But this one...this one was far different. It was a color she had never seen before. She wasn't even sure it was a color because, well, it just looked colorless. It was cold and it's chest wasn't rising and falling like the others. Rosie felt something she had never felt before: her heart felt heavy and sad, like something wasn't right. And suddenly her eyes became watery and she couldn't see very well. A droplet fell from her father's eyes and landed on the bird. She looked up at him.
"What is it, Daddy?"
He swallowed hard as a couple more tears made their way down his face.
"Something I never meant for you to know. This is death, dear one."
She didn't like the sound of that word. "Can you fix it?"
"Someday you will understand that I have already fixed it."
"But it hurts right now," she said as her eyes overflowed with tears.
Her father scooped her up in his strong, safe arms and held her close.
"I know, dear one. I am here with you. I will always be here with you."
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A friend of mine has recently died unexpectedly and in the midst of the shock, sadness, and grief, I have been reminded that God never intended for us to experience death and it brings me great hope to remember that He IS life, light, and love.
In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord,
for our hope is in you alone.
Psalm 33:21-22
And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so that you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance--an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.
1 Peter 1:3-4
