This Made Me Cry.

 Each morning around the breakfast table, I read to the children from a children's Bible.This morning, we're back to 'The Big Picture Story Bible', by David Helm and Gail Schoonmaker:(It's a great read, by the way).As I opened up this bible to read it, I noticed something that I had not noticed before.Namely, the dedication:

'In memory of

Daniel Mark Oster

May 29 - 31, 1997'.

That's right: it's in memory of the author's 3 day old baby, who passed away tragically. 

As soon as I read that, I couldn't help crying.

Maybe it's because I've got a newborn baby (although Xavier is coming up to 3 months!), and the thought of losing him is too much to bear.

(But I don't think my children knew what to do with their daddy crying at the breakfast table).

Anyway, as I turned the page to begin reading, I saw this dedication from David Helm:

For my children -

Noah, Joanna, Baxter, Silas and Mariah,

and the children of their generation,

that they too may come to know by faith 

what Daniel already knows by sight.

D.H. 

Ah, what joyous words!

As a Christian, David Helm has a sure hope that death is not the end.

That in fact his son Daniel is with the Lord Jesus right now, safe in His care.

What sweet, sweet assurance!

Having just finished reading the apostle Paul's first  letter to the Corinthian church, these verses are fresh in my mind:

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true:

"Death has been swallowed up in victory."  

55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"  

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  

57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Cor 15:54-57).

One day, the bible says, we're all going to face death.

And yet, the bible holds out the hope that death need not be the end: that Jesus Christ has defeated death, and holds out the offer of life, eternal life, for those who want it.

Can there be anything better, than knowing death need not be the end?