You're going to miss this

Anyone who has ever been a parent has almost certainly been met with the words "You're going to miss this." Another similar sentiment is, "Enjoy it, because it will be gone so quickly." But I want to give you a whole new sentiment to focus on that has ended that nonsense once and for all.

You are not going to miss this. Well, MAYBE you will, but you do not have to, because THIS is broken. This is sinful. This is fallen. And friends, what is to come is so, SO much better.

No one looks at a laboring woman and tells her, "Quick! Enjoy this! It will be over so soon!" No one wags their finger at her in her suffering and says, "You better wake up and enjoy this because it will be over and then you will never get it back!"

I do NOT miss labor. I will NEVER miss labor. Yes, I am so thankful I was able to give birth to my children, that God fearfully and wonderfully made my body in a way to be able to do that, and that, mercifully, I survived each birth even with varying degrees of serious injury.

All of life is afflicted by birth pains of sin and death. We are in labor for this life that is going to end and like a laboring woman we know not how long it will last, nor how severe the contractions will be. And then, once and for all, all of the pain and brokenness will be over and...

We will never have to miss anything ever again, because forever, for all of eternity, we will be in peace and joy and communion with one another.

Don't miss this, look forward to when you will have it all, again, but perfect and forever.

A dear friend of mine who has been sitting in the pit with me while I mourn, grieve, and grapple with my broken reality was dreaming on the day she will be in her mansion in heaven with all her beloved children, including her sweet baby who already waits for her, and was saying how cool it will be to say, "Hey everyone, I'm going to Grandma's house, and I'll be back in a few hundred years." And everyone will shout their goodbyes or maybe decide to walk along, but there will be no sadness because we are all always in communion and never in sickness or death or loss ever again.

Don't add to your grief or anyone's grief by telling them to cling to something they cannot keep and don't really want to anyways. Instead, add to their joy by telling them that when this imperfect version fades away, they WILL GET IT BACK, but this time, PERFECTED!

You will get it back.

Christ is coming as He said.

And, as another friend shared with me, when we're grieving and lost and alone, "we get up and drag ourselves into the kitchen, put on a cup of tea, and when it's warm enough we go sit outside in a lawn chair and pretend we're watching our kids play, when really we're looking for something over their heads on the horizon - - it is there within us and yet a long way still off." 

Christ keep us. Come Soon Lord Jesus.