Still, we all endure loss. Some more than others, but it is a universal experience. As someone who is middle aged, my experiences with death are probably quite common. I have lost all my grandparents, both parents, a handful of friends, a couple of childhood playmates, an old high school girlfriend, and a couple of coworkers. Still, I have always had this nagging feeling – as we all do – that death has a particular grudge against me, and that few others have witnessed so much death as I.

The Bible tells us that it is appointed unto man once to die; every one of us shall die. Job declared,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Take another look at that passage. You have probably heard it at funerals. You almost always here it on television depictions of funerals. “The Lord giveth… and the Lord taketh away.” The part that I find astonishing is that Job praises God. “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Can you praise God in the midst of such tragic loss? Can I? Can we look death in the eye and say, “I don’t understand God’s plan, but I will praise Him nonetheless?”

I could if it is my own death to which I refer; I have been ready to go for a while. What kind of faith does it take to say that when faced with the death of someone as close as a spouse, a son, or a daughter?

Church tradition tells that the Apostle Peter’s wife was led first to her death at the hands of Emperor Nero. As the guards led her away, Peter called to her, “Remember the Lord!” What faith. What wonderful faith!

In correspondence with a friend from Africa who has seen friends and family martyred, he has reminded me that we can be certain of a few things pertaining to death. Take comfort in them:

• Everyone will die, even those who persecute us.
• Death is not the end, look at the story of Lazarus. Our bodies will be restored at the Return of the Lord.
• The very day that we die, we will see Jesus is Paradise.
• We will see our loved ones in heaven. 2 Samuel 12:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:17

Death is certain, but so is eternal life for those who have aloud Jesus to be Lord of their life. I have always known for certain that God took my mother because He loved her too much to allow her to suffer longer.

There is one more thing I know for certain. We must faithfully love those whom God has given us, because they are just on loan to us. He will want them back again someday.

Fear Not, for we shall see our loved ones again.

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As part of the treatment, they placed our boy under an oxygen tent to keep him cool, something that he was too young to understand. He was afraid. As parents it was difficult to watch him cry and reach out to us and not be able to hold him. 

We neither one could resist; our son wanted us… needed us. One at a time, we would crawl under the oxygen tent and into bed with him. We held him and reassured him until he was ready to come home a week later. 

If we, as fallible human parents, possess the irresistible urge to treat our children with such loving care, can we ever begin to imagine the loving care of our perfect Heavenly Father?

Reach out to Him, and he will comfort you and hold you. 

Fear Not. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. 

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The next few days were tough. He was inconsolable, and withdrew into himself. He had three older brothers and a sister at home, but he preferred to be alone. At school, he wouldn’t talk to the other kids. He chose to play alone at the far end of the playground, away from the swings and merry-go-round. 

Only the discovery of a box turtle in his back yard seemed to cheer him. He and his brother painted the turtle. Within a few days, though, it had disappeared. A few more days, and they found it dead on the highway in front of their home. 

Little Joe hid in back of the house and cried. He prayed. He desperately wanted the turtle to live and couldn’t understand why God wouldn’t bring the turtle back to life. That’s what he thought he was praying for, but he was overwhelmed with emotions. 

Now, what happened next may sound insane to some. To others, it may sound like the overactive imagination of a grieving child. To this day, it is as real to Little Joe as the memory of that box turtle or any other childhood memory. 

All cried out, Little Joe sat down on the grass and wiped his eyes to see two glowing men. He immediately knew they were angels. They were there, they said, to let him know that his dad was okay. They told him that he would see him again some day. 

“What’s your names?” asked Little Joe. 

They told him, but he couldn’t pronounce them. 

“I’ll just call you Pinky and Bluey,” he said. One Angel glowed with a pinkish hue and the other glowed with a blue.

They laughed. Little Joe had two guardian angels, at least for a while. He is not sure when they stopped visiting, but within a few weeks, winter set in. His grief began to subside. The angels stopped coming around. 

The Bible indicates that angels work behind the scenes in this world. They fight battles against demons. They deliver messages. They protect nations. Maybe they comfort children. 

The passage in Daniel 10 is one of many examples. In this case, the angel tells Daniel that God had heard his prayers and sent the angel to answer them.

Ask Little Joe, and he will tell you the same thing about Pinky and Bluey. 

Fear Not, for God sends angels to watch over His children. 

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