Anna Updates

  I finished my Daniel study last night. When we finished listening to the last session….we all just kind of set there wondering and marveling how God revealed to Daniel the end of the world, but more than that marveling at the AWESOMENESS of God! Wow, there is so much ahead for Israel and for us!  God is not silent , everything has a purpose and a point! Who is like our God? I got the chills when I was doing my last day of homework before our b. study meeting.  It was about how the final enemy that J.C. will destroy and put under His feet is death! It was an amazing word from God, but even more amazing is the significance of this week.  This coming Saturday my little brother Joshua would be 7 years old…I never really know what to do on his birthday, or what to say to my family.  The sting of death is still there.  Although I have accepted it and know that God makes no mistakes…it feels wrong that he is gone.  1 Corinthians 15:54-56 asks the question “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”  and then answers the question with “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our LRD J.C.”  I found knew hope and comfort in death through my last lesson….death has been made victorious through J.C. and His death.  But it is still a sting that we feel, reminding us that He is coming to defeat this enemy forever!  Have you ever heard the sob of death? I have…It is almost worse to see people you love more than anything sobbing in a way that makes you want to die yourself than when you yourself sob.  I will never forget when we left the hospital without Joshua, after holding him as he took his last breaths on earth, and driving to the restaurant telling ourselves to eat….I sat by my 16 year old sister at the table while she put her head on the table and made sounds I have never heard anyone make.  When someone you love that much dies a place breaks inside of you that you never knew existed.  You yourself cannot fix it, and cannot help it where and when you sob.  I remember being at target and putting my head down in the candy bar isle and sobbing, not caring that everyone in the isle was watching me.  I couldn’t fix that place.  Only the hope of J.C. defeating that terrible sting forever can fix that place in my heart.  He is coming to defeat this enemy forever…Until then I cannot help but dread all the times I may feel that sting again…but I will hope in a perfect Father who even though the sting remains He has made death victorious!  “Joshua, I love you! Happy 7th birthday….every time I feel the sting of your death I have new hope that  J.C. is coming… We will see you again!  I can’t even imagine how happy you are! Save me a big piece of birthday cake will you? I miss you and I always will!”  -your big sis who loves you!