Babyland

Nothing reminds me more of the consequences of sin than the death of children.  There is something so... utterly wrong about it.  These babies haven't even had the chance to sin or to seek the Lord and yet, the consequence of Adam's sin, death, still find them.

When we lived in Colorado, we would visit our Grace in Green Mountain Cemetery.  Her plot was donated by the cemetery in a little area they call "Babyland."  As you might suspect, this area is populated by tiny graces packed closely together.  You walk up and down the rows and see how parents have decorated the markers of their beloved children.  It feels... unnatural to be there.  You feel it in your bones, in your very marrow.  All we have left are the little spaces where our children await the resurrection.

"The sword of death has come and cut you off like a tender branch before you even tasted the joys of this earth, O blessed infant. Behold: in His tender loving kindness, Christ has opened the gates of Heaven to you, numbering you among His chosen saints in His eternal Kingdom."

Today is the sixth anniversary of the death of my best friend's daughter, Sarah.  Like Grace, she had a chromosomal abnormality that left her body "incompatible with life."  This much loved and wanted baby was born still and she was held and mourned and is remembered.  The days and years go by and sometimes it seems like we lost our daughters a lifetime ago.  Sometimes, like tonight, the loss feels raw and newly painful again.

O Lord, You have called unto Yourself this most pure infant, never having tasted life in this fallen world; grant her rest in Your heavenly mansions, among the choir of Your saints and the righteous, where the light of Your face forevermore shines, O Lover of mankind.

 May your memory be eternal, dear Sarah, for you are worthy of blessedness and everlasting life!