sweet find

A random picture I found.

My nephew that I got to see this summer.

He's a chatter box sweet heart.  So nice to see him and my sister and her two other boys but for a sad reason.  I had a 30 year old cousin die this summer which was the first death in our family in many many years... and definitely the first tragedy.  He died suddenly in his sleep of a seizure.  A very sad  event.

The 'lemonade' was seeing my sister, and the rest of my family.

However, another reminder to me that this life is temporary and you never know what will happen to you and your family.  In the past few years I've been drawn to the realization that I will die and I want to be ready.  I thought the other day that death for us (to God) is probably similar to birthing a baby (to us).  We wait and wait and get so excited.. 9 months seems so long and then finally that sweet little baby makes their way into this world and we are so excited to meet them and hold them and snuggle them.  How must God feel when we die and 'arrive' in his world?  Our God is so loving and I bet, in a way, so excited for us to die and join him.  I love God, I trust God, and I'm excited to meet God but I'm still scared.  This week, it occurred to me that God will prepare my heart for death as long as I am walking with him and talking with him.  When my 'time' comes and if I know ahead of time then I trust that I will feel safe in God's 'womb' and be ready to join a new world.  If I'm 'lucky' it will be a surprise and unplanned.. and not for a long, long time.

On a side note, our church just has a teaching/service that had a great visual.  They brought out a rope and the end was painted red.  The rest was white.  Imagine a very, very long rope that never ends.  The red represents life here on earth and the white represents eternity.  What do we 'earthlings' focus on?  Earth... and we need to know we are made for eternity.. made for heaven, not here.  And that brings me to one last thought.  Do you ever feel a longing in your heart for something?  Something that you can't really pinpoint?  You're grumpy, you're tired, you're not happy, you're lonely, you're just sad.  One unique thing to you that makes you feel 10% incomplete?  Well. God made you that way.  None of us will be 100% until we die and go to heaven.. no matter what you do.  Let me repeat this, you will never be 100% here on earth.  Kind of sad but also explains that pain in my heart... that longing.

I hope if you read this, then you think about eternity a little bit more, and how you feel about your own 'birthing' into the other world.