| Things to Live For |
Chapter 17 |
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In these after days, when the poignancy of the grief is past, when the light has begun to come again, and when the grace of God has reappeared full of love, the heart begins to find comfort in precious memories of those who are gone. Death sweeps away the faults, the flaws, the imperfections, which were so apparent in our friends when they were close beside us, and brings out in them all the beautiful things, only half understood, half perceived, when they were with us. Forgotten kindnesses of years past are remembered when friends are gone. A thousand fragments of beauty in character and conduct – hidden, unnoticed before – memory now gathers up. The result is a transfigured life, in which all that was good, true, lovely, and worthy has a place.
A middle aged man said recently that his mother had been far more to him the ten years she had been in heaven than the ten years before her departure. A woman of advanced years said that her first baby, which had been with Christ for fifty years, had been a softening, refining, spiritualizing, upward drawing influence in her life all those years. There is no doubt that in thousands of cases our friends are more to us in heaven than ever they were while they were with us. The influence of glorified children on parents and homes is very marked. A baby in heaven means more to many fathers and mothers than a baby in their arms. It is a magnet to draw their hearts heavenward.
When they began to build a great wire suspension bridge over a wide river, a kite was sent across with the first fine wire. This was fastened, and then on it other wires were drawn across, until the great bridge hung in the air, and thousands were passing over it. From many a home a loved one, borne to heaven, carries the first heavenward thought of a worldly household. But from that moment, and on that slender thread, their thoughts, affections, and longings go continually heavenward, until there is a broad golden bridge hung between their home and God’s house, and prayer and love are constantly passing over.
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