| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 4 |
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Then they are kept safe and secure for us in the home of God. We really have not lost them, although they have been taken out of our sight. They lose nothing of their beauty or their excellence of character in passing through death. The things in them which made them dear to us in this world they will have when we shall see them again. Indeed, they will have grown into rarer beauty and into greater dearness when we find them again.
“God keeps a niche
In heaven to hold our idols; and albeit
He broke them to our faces and denied
That our close kisses should impair their white–
I know we shall behold them, raised, complete,
The dust swept from their beauty.”
We know, further, since God is love, that when He takes our friends into richer life, He will send compensation to us, too, in some way. Even the loss and the sorrow will yield their gain and their ministry of good, unless by our attitude of mind and heart we miss the blessing. It is possible for us to fail to get the good God sends, shutting our heart against it. But there is no doubt that in every loss a gain is offered to us. When God takes away one blessing He gives another. Perhaps the withdrawal of the human object of love makes more room in the heart for God Himself. Or the taking away of the strength which has meant so much to us, trains us to more self dependence, thus bringing out in us qualities of which hitherto we had been unaware. Or the sorrow itself deepens our spiritual life and enriches our experience, giving us a new power of sympathy through which we may become better comforters and helpers of others.
Then the taking of our earthly loved ones from our side through the gates of blessedness, makes heaven more real to us because they now walk there. A mother said it had been a great deal easier for her to pray and easier to be a Christian and to think of Christ, the year since her baby died, because she knew it was with Him. Thus, in many ways, does new blessing come in place of what has been taken away.
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