Funeral For An Infant
“David replied, ‘I fasted and wept while the child was alive,
for I said, “Perhaps the LORD will be gracious to me and let the child live.” But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.’” - 2 Samuel 12:22- 23 (NLT)
In Samuel 12 we read the sad story of David’s child by Bathsheba becoming ill. David spent six days in prayer and fasting for the health and healing of the child. On the seventh day the child died and as David’s servants told him. When he stopped praying and fasting, they asked him why. He replied, “I cannot bring him back, but I can go to be with him.”
How can we face the loss of a little one with the courage and assurance David did? We must seek comfort in the presence of God.
These verses indicate that through prayer, David came to be comforted by God’s presence in his life.
1. Through the comfort that can come only through communing with God in prayer, David found assurance that all would be well.
HE MAKETH NO MISTAKE
My Father’s way may twist and turn, my heart may throb and ache,
But in my soul I’m glad I know, He maketh no mistake.
My cherished plans may go astray, my hopes may fade away,
But still I'll trust my Lord to lead for He doth know the way.
Tho’ night be dark and it may seem that day will never break;
I’ll pin my faith, my all in Him, He maketh no mistake.
There's so much now I cannot see, my eyesight’s far too dim;
But come what may, I’ll simply trust and leave it all to Him.
For by and by the mist will lift and plain it all He'll make.
Through all the way, tho’ dark to me, He made not one mistake.
A.M. Overton
2. Through the comfort that can come only through communing with God in prayer, David found peace in the midst of his grief.
In Philippians 4:7, God’s word speaks of “peace which exceeds anything we can understand.” In other words, in the midst of circumstances where one would not think it possible to have peace, God can provide peace.
But how does such peace come?
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.” - Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)
“Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” - Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message)
3. Through the comfort that can come only through communing with God in prayer, David found hope in the life to come.
David was confident that his child was in heaven, a place to which he knew he was also headed.
The Scripture teaches that all who reach a point in life where they recognize their accountability before God for their actions are responsible to acknowledge their sin and accept God’s provision for our forgiveness, which is the sacrifice God made in the person of Christ at Calvary.
But a child, who has never reached that point of maturity and awareness is graciously accepted into God’s presence. That is the truth taught to us here.
Through faith in God’s provision for his sins, David knew he would one day dwell in God’s eternal presence, where he expected to see his child, who had died, never having matured to the point of recognizing his accountability before God, yet who, by the grace of God, had been welcomed into God’s presence and was waiting for David to join him.
THE OTHER ROOM
No, not cold beneath the grasses,
not close-walled within a tomb;
Rather, they’re in my Father’s mansion,
merely living in another room.
Shall I doubt my Father’s mercy?
Shall I think of death as doom?
Or the stepping over the threshold
into a bigger, brighter room?
Shall I blame my Father’s wisdom?
Shall I sit overwhelmed with gloom?
When I know my love is happy; and
waiting for me in another other room?
Robert Freeman
4. Through the comfort that can come only through communing with God in prayer, David saw purpose in his child’s life.
David understood that God had a purpose he is working out in each and every life, and that all life, no matter how brief, has eternal value in God’s economy.
“What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” - James 4:14 (NIV)
In God’s economy, the life that belongs to Him continues its impact every into eternity.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” - Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
The Bible tells us that when our lives are placed in His hands, He will, in the end, make something beautiful of our lives, along with His work of restoring all of creation to its former glory, the glory it once knew before sin entered this world. We will share in that beauty for all of eternity and will enjoy the glory of God’s creation for all of eternity.
In eternity, we will not sit idly on some cloud playing a harp. Instead, some of the greatest discoveries awaiting the human race await us in eternity after God, through Christ has made all things new.
So you can rest assured, because of what awaits all of God’s children in eternity, that your child’s life has meaning and purpose.
But even if all your child had in life was what they experienced in this old sinful world, in God’s economy their life had purpose. We must not make the mistake this world often makes, which is to equate length of life with quality of life. Every life is of value and use in God’s hands, whether it last a thousand years or a single day.
“With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day.” - 2 Peter 3:8 (The Message)
A visitor from heaven, if only for a while -
The gift of love to be returned,
We think of you and smile.
A visitor from heaven, accompanied by grace -
Reminding of a better love,
And of a better place.
With aching hearts and empty arms,
We send you with a name.
It hurts so much to let you go,
But we’re so glad you came.
A visitor from heaven, if only for a day -
We thank Him for the time He gave;
And now it’s time to say,
We trust you to our Father’s love
And to His tender care,
Held in the everlasting arms;
And we’re so glad you’re there.
With aching hearts and open hands,
We send you with a name.
It hurts so much to let you go,
But we’re so glad you came.
Twila Paris
