Aaron

Tuesday my second cousin, five-year old Aaron, underwent heart surgery. It was to be the last surgery of many that would help him to live with the congenital heart defects he was born with. Doctors were 75 to 85% sure that he would survive the surgery and it would improve his quality of life. After the surgery later in the evening, Aaron went home to be with Jesus.

It was a shock to all of us. He was always the center of attention with all the little cousins, of which there are many in our family. His smile lit up any room that he was in.

His parents are walking around, talking to people, taking phone calls. I think I'd be wiped out if this happened to me - in my bed with the door shut and blinds pulled and taking no visitors. Of course, none of us can know how we'd react in that situation and I never want to find out.

I'm glad we have the hope of Christ's resurrection. It's the only way I can imagine his parents are going to get through this.

I wrote "In Memory of Aaron" and gave it to his parents and my aunt (Aaron's grandmother). I didn't know what else to say to them, but it was what I was feeling.

In Memory of Aaron

In Memory of Aaron

We mourn the loss of one that we love.
We don’t understand, somehow we don’t want to.
We want our loved one back.

We want to hear his laughter, to see his smile,
We want to see him dance to the music,
Especially the music he hears in his own soul when no one else can hear it.
We want to hold him, to tell him how much we love him.
We want to make sure that he knows how much we love him.

But Lord, we know that he is in a better place.
In Your presence, He can hear the music with purity.
The worship and praise is continual and without holding back.
We cannot begin to imagine what his ears are hearing and what his eyes are seeing.
We know that he runs and jumps and laughs out loud.
The joy that he experienced in this place is not to compare with what he experiences there.

Lord, help us as we miss him.
Don’t let our hearts break so much that we cannot reach out to help someone else.
Don’t let our hearts grow so cold that we no longer hear Your voice.
Don’t let us blame You, because Lord, we know that you also experienced the death of a Son.
Your Son was perfect, but from His birth, the cross was in his future.
Lord, help us. We don’t know how we are going to get through this.
We don’t even want to go through it.
We want to go back to last week, last month, last year
And we want it to be different than it is.

Lord, we know that You hold all things in Your hands.
You make all things beautiful in Your time
And you know the beginning from the end.
Your ways are above ours.
We know that as our hearts break, You are also able to apply Your oil of gladness.
Lord, we are wearing a cloak of mourning, but we know that as we take steps toward You
That You will lift this heavy weight and place Your gladness in us.

We are glad that we knew him.
We are glad that he walked this way for a while.
We know that he touched lives in ways that no one else could.
We know that no one can touch us like that again,
But Lord, we know that You will touch us in the places that he has left vacant.
We know that You will take what is empty and torn with grief and pain
And that you will apply the Balm of Gilead to bring us to You.
And someday we will go to where he is.