With Hope

Since my last entry, life has changed. It's been a whirlwind. On Saturday night, our first nephew was born into the arms of Jesus. It's been a tough five days. Today, we said goodbye to Marcos Ian. As the service ended, we stood around the tiny grave and rain--that we haven't seen in a month--poured and poured. As though heaven was crying with us. At the same time, it seemed so refreshing. It seemed like some of the sorrow we've felt was washed away. 

We know that our God is a God of plans. Though we don't fully know the purpose of Marcos' short life on earth, we know that it was purposeful. Our God is a purposeful creator of life. Although we're grieving his loss, we have hope that we'll see him again. We know that God is loving and merciful. We know that in Matthew, he called children to him. Children are special to our Savior.

As we continue to grieve and begin to heal, I have a feeling that this song will be quite fitting.

With Hope 

Lyrics by Steven Curtis Chapman

This is not at all how

We thought it was supposed to be

We had so many plans for you

We had so many dreams

And now you've gone away

And left us with the memories of your smile

And nothing we can say

And nothing we can do

Can take away the pain

The pain of losing you, but ...

We can cry with hope

We can say goodbye with hope

'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no

And we can grieve with hope

'Cause we believe with hope

There's a place where we'll see your face again

We'll see your face again

And never have I known

Anything so hard to understand

And never have I questioned more

The wisdom of God's plan

But through the cloud of tears

I see the Father's smile and say well done

And I imagine you

Where you wanted most to be

Seeing all your dreams come true

'Cause now you're home

And now you're free, and ...

We have this hope as an anchor

'Cause we believe that everything

God promised us is true, so ...

So we can cry with hope

And say goodbye with hope

We wait with hope

And we ache with hope

We hold on with hope

We let go with hope