Anastasia
Gathering Flowers by Albert Lynch, circa 1905
It was one of those unexpected messages that carried deep sorrow. One of our beloved granddaughters had suddenly slipped away into Glory just two days before her expected birth. Her name was Anastasia, a beautiful name which means ‘resurrection’. When I meet her someday at the return of the King of Kings, she will have a new name given to her by God, and she will be a woman in full eternal resurrection glory of the image of God … but I will still know who she is though we never met in this short life.
My Lady had already made the five-hour trip a few days earlier, excited to be there when her grandchild would be born and to help her daughter with her new baby. Wild horses cannot keep her away when one of her daughters has a baby.
How things can change in just one day.
As the finality of the message moved through my mind, I experienced two powerful feelings—deep sorrow and supernatural peace. The joy of getting to know Anastasia and watching her grow up would never happen. Instead, she has become the first of our descendants to go on ahead of the rest of us, into the presence of God and eternity. I grieve yet, at the same time, a supernatural peace surrounds me knowing she is safe in the arms of the Father of Lights from whom every good thing comes and every perfect gift is given. (1)
I also grieve for our son-in-law and for our youngest daughter who carried Anastasia the full nine months, anticipating the joy of arrival until the child within her suddenly stopped moving … and then going to the hospital to deliver her baby girl, knowing she had already slipped ahead into eternity.
The doctors do not know why this happened; she was an otherwise very healthy eight pounds when born … but God knew it was her time. There are some people who do not need to endure this world. They are ready to meet God before they are even born. I use the word “endure” on purpose and as you reach your elder years, and have seen so much of what this world contains, you will begin to understand why I use it. Yes, I love the beautiful things God has put into this world as reminders of Him and His call … things that are true, honourable, pure, lovely, and worthy of praise. But I also have a lifetime of knowing what else occurs in this world.
If this life was all there was, Anastasia’s brief existence here would have seemed so utterly pointless—all her potential, talents, love, and abilities snuffed out before the candle even burst into flame. But this life is not all there is, and our true potential is not for this world but for eternity in our full immortal form.
Our mission in life is to prepare to meet God and help others do the same. When it is completed, it is time to go. For Anastasia, God deemed that she was ready, and called her home—indescribable joy for her, but enormous sorrow for us. But we will soon follow her. When my father looked back at his 92 years of life shortly before he passed into glory, he said, “It happened so fast.”
This life is the doorstep into eternity; it is not the main event. God describes our mortal lives here as like a vapour, a flower that today is and tomorrow is gone. It is like a dream that you had in the night but in the morning cannot recall what it was about. Yet, tragically, most people live in this world as if this is all there is.
It is in times of sorrow like this that the most important question of a person’s life comes to mind—do you have eternal life? Jesus said that if we wish to follow Him, and receive the gift of purity before God and eternal life, we must “deny” ourselves—completely abandoning everything about us, the totality of all we hold dear including our self-made identities, our ambitions, our dreams—one hundred percent of everything, no terms, no conditions, ‘all-in’, throwing ourselves completely in the arms of Jesus Christ, holding nothing back.(2) In exchange he said that the one who loses their life for his sake will find it. A new, supernatural rebirth that begins right here and extends into eternity. I would not trade this for the world.
“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the human heart, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.” (3)
Goodbye Anastasia; I am so looking forward to meeting you.
Further Reading:
Footnotes:
James 1:17
Luke 9:23-26
1 Corinthians 2:9
