2 cor 4:16-18
So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new everyday. We have small troubles for a while now, but they are helping us gain an eternal glory. That glory is much greater than the troubles. So we set our eyes not on what we see but on what we cannot see. What we see will last only a short time. But what we cannot see will last forever.
5:6-8
So we always have courage. We know that while we live in this body we are away from the Lord. We live by what we believe, not by what we can see. So I say that we have courage. And we really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord.
It was chilly in our room this morning when I finished nursing Wells Jake.
At 5:00 am my eyes were heavy when I wrapped him in a swaddle that would soothe him back to sleep.
I looked at his sweet 4 week old face and kissed him again before plopping back onto my pillow.
I've known him for only 4 weeks and the ferocious love I have for him is beyond my own capacity. This is a love that comes from God's deep well in me I thought.
While studying his face he snorted out a large yawn with his tiny mouth. I grabbed my heart and swooned over his perfectness. I am in love.
My mind drifted a moment to Jake again.
I remembered his form at this very age. He slept in my parents room in his bassinet at 4 weeks old. My room was close and I could hear when he woke up in the middle of the night. I rushed to his side whenever I was awakened by his sweet cry. I remember wanting to feed him and change his diaper any moment he was awake. I was utterly in love with my baby brother. As I stare in awe at this sweet newborn God gave me, my Wells Jake, I cannot imagine losing him at 17 years old. It would destroy me if a man killed my son...I understand this misery from a perspective of a protective desperately in love big sister but as a mother I'm devastated again and again to think of my parents grief in losing Jake and losing him in the way they did.
But God whispered something in my heart this morning.
"Jake is not lost"
We did not loose our "Jakers".
I am reminded of a verse in 2 Corinthians.
"So we always have courage. We know that while we live in this body we are away from the Lord. We live by what we believe, not by what we can see. So I say that we have courage. And we really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord."
Jake is at home with the Lord right now. Paul tells us to have courage that while we are on earth we live by what we believe but when we die to life on earth we don't have to just believe, we will be living the promise God gave us not just believing it.
We actually have proof while here now that we have a greater destination. We have proof to accompany our faith that we are on our way somewhere and this is not our home.
God gave us something that is not physical. He gave us a gift that we cannot see but that is eternal. He has already given us a down payment of what is to come.
God has given us a spirit. A soul, and the holy spirit.
These unseen gifts are who we are.
If a paralyzed person was asked if they consider their identity to be a cripple they would tell you no. Who they are is what is inside of them not what their body suffers.
If a beautiful woman is defined by her outer shell when she ages who is she then? If she is no longer beautiful because of her appearance then what is the meaning of her existence?
"Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new everyday."
Jake's body is no longer becoming older and weaker, his body has been shed and his spirit has entered into eternity with the Lord.
So when I say we lost Jake at 17, I should say Jake has graduated at 17. At 31 I am still on the path to graduation.
Scientists of all belief systems will agree that humans have spirit. The spirit is our emotions and mind and sense of humor etc.
Even the ones that believe in evolution cannot explain where the spirit came from. It did not crawl onto shore and grow a tail. It did not form in the "big bang". The spirit is unseen and it is the breath of God Himself.
If the things that are unseen are eternal and the spirit and soul in us is unseen, we have eternity awaiting us. Our unseen gifts were not given by our own doing, and they were not granted from particles from the big bang. We all know we have a physical body that does not function without the spirit yet the spirit is unseen and cannot be weighed or measured...
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."
God's Spirit confirms and is a witness to our spirit inside of us that we are His children and if His children then heirs and co-rulers. (romans 8:17) We have an eternal purpose and an exciting future awaiting our arrival into eternity.
Jake is apart of the welcome we will receive when we enter the beginning to the rest of eternity.
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