Hope and Sorrow Foreshadow Joy

This past Saturday I drove to Richmond to celebrate one of the fastest trips home anyone ever took. Baby Gabrielle Ruth Shaffer passed through this earth on May 20, returning to the Father the same day she visited this earth.

God's Word filled this service. I was most struck by this promise from Isaiah 65:

They will not toil in vain

or bear children doomed to misfortune

for they will be a people blessed by the LORD,

they and their descendants with them.

Before they call I will answer;

while they are still speaking I will hear.

We will always know sorrow along this earthy road. But that sadness is tinged with hope for those who know Him. Someday the sorrow will give way to unrestrained eternal joy when his people all arrive Home.