With joy and expectation of what is to come! “Death is like the horizon. It is only as far as the human eye can see.” This was one quote the chaplain used Saturday during the Community Hospice Memorial Service honoring all the loved ones under their care who have transitioned from this life into the next. I liked the quote immediately and deeply. It is a beautiful expression of hope and understanding of the world that lies beyond our natural sight.
Not long ago as I was laying my heavy heart bare before my Father, He spoke gently and sweetly into my ache and lifted a bit of the stifling grief out of my chest. This is what He showed me.
The fetus inside his mother’s womb experiences the glory of where he is. All his needs are met instantaneously. He is always warm and “held” by his mother. The beat of his heart is returned to him by the steady, solid and loud echo from his mother’s heart. Intimacy, connection, nurturing, oneness…the essence of what we value most in life is formed and created in the existence and containment of the womb. The fetus inside this atmosphere of life, love and being would never leave this “home” if he didn’t have to. If he understood what was about to happen during transition he would be horrified! With great pain and sorrow he is born into this world. But we who have experienced this “birth” rejoice! We know the sorrow of transition is for but a season. The joy and glory of being born far outweighs the pain and ache of child birth. Soon, both mother and child would agree! Neither would long to go back to life before birth. Who, after tasting the wonder of this life, would crawl back into his mother’s womb? We do not cry for the child being born, even if it is with great pain, but rather rejoice because we know and have experienced the glory outside the womb.
If I can see the immeasurable difference of the weight of glory going from fetus to infant, how much more glorious is our transition from the womb of this earth to heaven? “But Grace was so young, Father. There was so much she didn’t get to experience. Our time was cut short”, my bleeding heart sighs and cries. But God the Father is tender and patient. He continues to show me and explain. As I remain in the womb of this earth, I can not hear what is on the other side. I am encapsulated by the boundaries of this natural world. I can not know how Grace, if she could see us, would be saying, “Why are you crying for me?? Don’t you know it is far better here? The dark existence on earth is nothing compared with the glory and light of being here!” “Do you not understand your “home” is cramped, dark and constrictive?”
What fetus would long for one more day inside his “home” if he knew the glory, wonder and light that awaited him on the other side? What I am coming to see more clearly and with greater understanding is Grace is living more alive, more joyful and with more earth shattering wisdom than I can possibly imagine. Why go back, long or weep for the womb of this earth when the glory of truly living and Home is beckoning?
Death, like natural child birth, comes with tears, pain and sorrow. But the sorrow lasts for only a short season. Death does not mean life is over. Death is only the transition from the womb of this world into what can be called truly living for those who call Him Father! On the other side of the horizon no one is weeping or shedding sorrowful tears, only rejoicing for the life that has been “born”.
Not long ago as I was laying my heavy heart bare before my Father, He spoke gently and sweetly into my ache and lifted a bit of the stifling grief out of my chest. This is what He showed me.
The fetus inside his mother’s womb experiences the glory of where he is. All his needs are met instantaneously. He is always warm and “held” by his mother. The beat of his heart is returned to him by the steady, solid and loud echo from his mother’s heart. Intimacy, connection, nurturing, oneness…the essence of what we value most in life is formed and created in the existence and containment of the womb. The fetus inside this atmosphere of life, love and being would never leave this “home” if he didn’t have to. If he understood what was about to happen during transition he would be horrified! With great pain and sorrow he is born into this world. But we who have experienced this “birth” rejoice! We know the sorrow of transition is for but a season. The joy and glory of being born far outweighs the pain and ache of child birth. Soon, both mother and child would agree! Neither would long to go back to life before birth. Who, after tasting the wonder of this life, would crawl back into his mother’s womb? We do not cry for the child being born, even if it is with great pain, but rather rejoice because we know and have experienced the glory outside the womb.
If I can see the immeasurable difference of the weight of glory going from fetus to infant, how much more glorious is our transition from the womb of this earth to heaven? “But Grace was so young, Father. There was so much she didn’t get to experience. Our time was cut short”, my bleeding heart sighs and cries. But God the Father is tender and patient. He continues to show me and explain. As I remain in the womb of this earth, I can not hear what is on the other side. I am encapsulated by the boundaries of this natural world. I can not know how Grace, if she could see us, would be saying, “Why are you crying for me?? Don’t you know it is far better here? The dark existence on earth is nothing compared with the glory and light of being here!” “Do you not understand your “home” is cramped, dark and constrictive?”
What fetus would long for one more day inside his “home” if he knew the glory, wonder and light that awaited him on the other side? What I am coming to see more clearly and with greater understanding is Grace is living more alive, more joyful and with more earth shattering wisdom than I can possibly imagine. Why go back, long or weep for the womb of this earth when the glory of truly living and Home is beckoning?
Death, like natural child birth, comes with tears, pain and sorrow. But the sorrow lasts for only a short season. Death does not mean life is over. Death is only the transition from the womb of this world into what can be called truly living for those who call Him Father! On the other side of the horizon no one is weeping or shedding sorrowful tears, only rejoicing for the life that has been “born”.
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