Jesus loves me this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
They are weak but he is strong.
In April of this year, we discovered cancer had wrapped its greedy fingers around Laurelai’s brain stem. The news rocked our family, and for many of us, our faith. How could a good God let this happen to a little girl, barely past her third birthday? Over the months that followed, praying for Laurelai and her parents, we came to realize that while God reveals his heart to us through his Word, his mind and his ways remain a mystery.
We take hope knowing that because Laurelai died years too soon, her parents will get to spend forever with her someday. We are inspired by their hope when it didn’t make sense, and their faith when all seemed lost. We know that the God of peace is sustaining them through the ache of losing their little girl, and will sustain them through the dark days to come.
When I heard that Laurelai was gone, I was shattered. I didn’t even know what to pray. I sat on the kitchen floor and just cried. With a two year old in the house, one cannot exactly be alone in her grief. My son was wandering through the kitchen banging on a cardboard box singing Jesus Loves Me. As I swallowed my tears and sang along, the words of that ancient Sunday school song soaked into my soul: Little ones to him belong. I closed my eyes then and I saw her. I saw Laurelai on Jesus’ lap leaning on him the way she leaned on her mom and dad in those last few months. But she lifted her head from his shoulder, touched his face, then jumped down and ran off to dance in the rainbows.
Yes, Jesus loves Laurelai.
