Thankful

Having enjoyed a few days in the Smoky Mountains,
we continue our journey home tomorrow.

It is a very long drive, and we are taking our time...

simply being together.

 

I am currently reading O Love That Will Not Let Me Go by Nancy Guthrie.

It is a collection of thoughts about death by contemporary and classic theologians,

and it is where I read the quote I posted yesterday.

In it, JI Packer points out that up until the twentieth century,

death served as one's constant companion.

People had to walk near cemeteries to get to church,

and most children died before the age of ten.

 Death, the one certainty of everyone's life, was not the "unmentionable" it is today,

and believers saw this life as preparation for the next.

 Today as we were driving in the mountains,

we stopped in a church graveyard that dates back to the nineteenth century.

As we walked amongst the tombstones, we saw a surprising amount marking the graves of babies.

I took several photos of them, but this one in particular caught my eye.

Offa Sparks lived two months, 

and her stone says, "Gone But Not Forgotten."

 

Tonight, I am thankful.

I am thankful to live in a time and place where

Jude was able to receive the medical care he received

that allowed us to be able to get to know our sweet little boy.

I am thankful to be the daughter of the One who is sovereign over my baby's life

just as He is sovereign over the lives of my husband and 5-year-old son.

I am thankful for this peaceful time with my little family.

And, I am thankful for all this beauty that is only a dim reflection

of the beauty that is yet to come.