Till We Are Home

I can imagine the sheer delight on my little girl’s face one day. I have no idea what it’s like in heaven, but if those loved ones who have gone before us are near upon our arrival, I can imagine my little girl being there when one of her best friends is received into her Savior’s arms. Sheer delight that her friend was saved, knows our Savior, and is finally home.

Today, I watched one of my little girl’s best friends get baptized. We are so thankful for what the Lord has done in her friend group, this just being the latest. 

As I sat there, this Lord’s Day after Thanksgiving, I couldn’t help but be thankful. Thankful to the Lord for what He’s done in that young woman’s life. Thankful that the Lord saves any of us. Thankful that He did the same in my daughter’s life and now she is home with Him. Thankful that He is telling a story…and telling a story where He brings others’ stories into your own. 

I’m so thankful that the Lord tells shared stories. 

Isabel had several wonderful friends from our church here in Texas. At one point, they all were the Unicorn Squad…a band of young girls out to conquer the world…or at least the halls of our small church. Isabel shared many sweet stories with many sweet friends at church. Today’s baptism reminded me of this – of the many shared stories with this particular friend who was baptized today and the shared stories of the many church families and her other friends watching in the audience. 

Oh the stories that could be told! How sweet and endearing they are to this daddy who misses his girl so much. These stories live on in her friends…these once young girls growing up to be the young women before us in the two years that have passed. I’m thankful they each have a part of my girl that they hold uniquely to themselves. 

But mostly I’m grateful to the Lord. Today was a sweet reminder of what He has done in our lives as we have faced this great sorrow. He has knitted us together with brothers and sisters in Christ who share our story, who share my daughter’s story, a story that in the end draws us all closer to Him.

These families, this church is full of people and stories that intertwine. It’s full of saints who have loved us so well and helped us in our darkest of days. God has brought us together for a season of life, however long that may last, to care for one another, to unburden each other of the weight we carry, to comfort, love, mourn with, and celebrate life’s events. 

The story of that young woman getting baptized today intertwined with my little girl’s for such a short time here on earth. But though it was short here, that time will be mere words in the introductory passage of a much longer story that is to come where their friendship and sisterhood in Christ will last for an eternity. 

Tales still to be told. Stories still to be written. Shared stories among people to care for one another when the calamities of life come. So many of them shared together because we have a great God who is loving beyond anything we could possibly understand. A God who tells shared stories among people to knit them together in the bond of the Father’s adopted family that will echo for eternity. 

So, while I miss my little girl so very much, I’m thankful the Lord is still at work in those who loved her. And I’m thankful He writes these shared stories of our life while we face the hard providences of these days…

Till we are home…

Oh, and also…in the continuing shared story between our girls, I was the one to serve communion to my daughter’s friend today…the first time ever she got to take the Lord’s Supper! The intricacy and detail of care that our God writes in these shared stories, what a grace beyond belief! The Purposeful Sovereignty of God as our pastor happened to also preach from the pulpit today.