Momentary Separation

7 weeks ago on my way to pick up Lizzy from the NICU I was reminded of God's kindness to us that we were bringing our baby girl home. My mom made the same trip to a different hospital 18 years ago but it was to say goodbye. January is the anniversary of the birth and death of my little sister Melody. She was born on the 14th of January and went home to be with her Creator a few days later on the 18th of 1991. It has been especially difficult for my mom as she longs for the day when she will get to see her again. And as I experienced in some small way the acute longing for Lizzy when she was in the NICU as my mom does for Melody, I was reminded of what it must have been like for God the father to be separated from Jesus His son when he absorbed our sins on the cross. It can never be said that God does not understand our sorrow and grief because He has experienced it all. Because of what Christ did for us on the cross we have hope to long for Him and to long for the ones who have gone home before us. What we experience as believers is only a momentary separation that in light of eternity is very small. I pray that I will long to see Jesus Christ with as much anticipation as I did to see Lizzy during the short time I was separated from her. My mom is an example of someone who has had a lifetime of physical pain, suffering and loss but has chosen to cling to the Savior all the more for it. She longs to be home with Christ more then anyone I know and I am grateful for her example of living in light of eternity.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 - 5:1-5 says

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

5:1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.