Sitting and listening with tears streaming down my face. Hearing others “emotions” around me feeling the same way. Why is it affecting me so?

This story being shared about an infant of whom I have prayed for months for. A grandfather with such a way with words sharing “their” story that it brings you into the world of a family experiencing a great loss. Yet there is so much love… so much peace… so opposite of what I have felt when I have lost a loved one, someone so close to me, a part of my family.

As I delve deeper into my own questions of “why” I hear answers from my Pastor, the grandfather who just lost his precious granddaughter a few days earlier. He speaks of how God has a perfect plan that he using us “imperfect” people for, that He is using his granddaughter for. That God is and acts out His word all… the….time… That He is faithful to us. We may not understand at the time why things like this happen. God has an intricate plan and maybe he gives us a glimpse at the time of hardship or loss of why we’re going through something, or maybe He doesn’t. But in the case of this beautiful baby he did, He pulled the curtain back a little, for this beautiful family to see God’s graciousness and perfect plan, and to show us EVERYONE lives a life, long or short, and dies for a reason. It’s not for nothing, but for something, something big.

And what is the ultimate gift that can be given to anyone? That anyone can accept? JESUS… just Him. To know Him, to trust Him, to love and be loved by Him, and to live with Him and our Father for all eternity. And this is the beginning of little Anabelle’s story, she gave a gift to someone through her own death, and that was Jesus. Can there be anything in life greater than that?