52 Weeks, 52 Verses--Week 40

Happy October 1 Everyone!

Sorry I am a bit late in posting my verse for this week, but as they say better late than never!

This has been a hard week, because at the end of last week's beautiful Sabbath day, my lovely mother-in-law died very unexpectedly from a heart attack.  This has been a real shock to everyone, as except for the few old age things such as arthritis, needing to wear a hearing aid, etc. she has been in GREAT health.  In fact, she was the caregiver for my father-in-law who is in poor health!  None of us EVER expected this to happen.  Not now.  Maybe if her health went down for a long time, but not to wake up perfectly fine and then pass away at the end of the day.

It hurts.  We miss her.  It still feels like a shock, as if it cannot be real.  At times like this people naturally try and make sense out of things--but it is my belief that we can never make sense out of death because we were not designed by our Creator to be exposed to it.  No, God designed humans to live in the beautiful Garden of Eden, in a sinless world.  It's no wonder we cannot make sense of death--we were not created to die, but to live!

But even though we messed things up here on our earth home, God loved us too much to leave us to what we deserved.  I'm glad, because really--we didn't deserve Jesus offering His sinless life to pay for our sins.  When I think about it, it still boggles my mind--how very much God loves us.  Much more than  we can wrap our brains around.

As I was reading through my Bible this week, trying to comprehend all that had just happened, I ran across a verse that I do not think I have really noticed before.  It just reminded me of my beautiful mother-in-law, as she loved the Lord very much.

So this is the verse I have chosen for this week:

"Those who fear the Lord are secure;  he will be a refuge for their children."  Proverbs 14:26 NLT

This verse describes my mother-in-law.  She is secure.  For awhile now, she will sleep in the grave.  She is not in pain or grief, she is resting.  (Ecclesiastes 9:5, Psalm 115:17)  Waiting.  Until her Savior comes to wake her up.

And then she will live with Him.  ". . . and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God."  Revelation 21:3

And while we will miss her while we are waiting for that great day when Jesus will return, we are not left without help.  We are not on our own.  Because did you catch the last part of that verse in Proverbs?

"he will be a refuge for their children"

My sweet, kind, loving mother-in-law may not be with us any more.  But she has left us an inheritance.  Our inheritance is Jesus.

Beautiful, wonderful Jesus.

He created us.  He redeemed us.  And he is coming to rescue us from this sin-filled planet.

"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes;  there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.  There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."  Revelation 21:4

I can't wait.  I will see her again.  And we will live together with Jesus--forever.

What a beautiful inheritance she has left us.