Promises

I might tend to ramble in this post because I have a fever (not sure why) and don't feel all that great but in the interest of pleasing a dear friend I wanted to make a post because she is watching :)
For this and all future posts I refer to me, zac, cabo, and rach as my little family. My big family is usually my side of the family including my four sisters, bonus sister, bonus brother, all of their spouses and children, Dad, and Linda.- and Zac's side of the family which includes his Mom, Dad, sister, and grandparents.

I talk to Rachel a lot about all of the people who love her and cherish her already. We also talk about her Grandmommy and how special she was and is to us. We talk about how much love she had, how much fun she was, and how much she loved family and God.
My big family is going through a bit of a shock this week. My Dad's oldest brother had a stroke on Sunday and it has rocked everyone to some degree. Of course his family but also my Dad as they are very close would do all I can to keep him from hurting. and it seems to take us back to my mom and a cure that was not to be found on this earth.
So Rachel and I were talking about life, love, and loss. I told her that we are not promised a tomorrow. The next thing I said was this "but we are promised forever". I stopped there in my kitchen, holding my two month old, and her half made bottle. I didn't even realize what I had said until I said it and over three years of anger, hurt, and confusion seemed to be answered.
I have been praying for so long for God to help me understand why we are put on this earth with people to love so much just to lose them in horrible ways or at unspeakable times. It was as if he spoke the words through my mouth in an innocent conversation with my infant.
We are never promised a tomorrow on this earth. We are given a much greater gift. We are promised an eternity with people we love, and a God who is beyond compare. We are promised a forever without hurt, sorrow, lonliness, anger, sadness, fear, tragedy....
While we will suffer temporary losses and struggles that seem so great we wonder if we can make it through at times, we have a promise that there will come a day when all will be made right and then we have forever to celebrate.

The Joy of our God!!!