Life and Death and Life

This afternoon I attended a funeral.
A week before Christmas.
The father of one of my second graders.
A precious little seven-year-old girl whose father died last Saturday afternoon from pancreatic cancer.

This has been a difficult week, balancing grief and sympathy for this child and her mother along with the excitement of Christmas that the other children have. Struggling to maintain composure while reading a heartbreaking email while dealing with the everyday business of school and life. It has also been the kind of week that I am especially thankful that I teach in a Christian school. I cannot imagine dealing with this kind of situation without being able to pray and talk with my students about our hope for the future because of Christ. I love being able to center all of my teaching on God's Word and world, but when real-life hits, this spiritual foundation is especially vital.

Every year, in December, we light four candles in my class as we prepare for Christmas. These candles each have special names to help us focus on the true meaning of Christmas: hope, peace, joy, and love. The message of these candles has affected me deeply this year as I think about this student and her family. The concepts these candles represent have been such a great comfort to me.

God supplies us with hope and peace in all circumstances because of His love. Even through our grief we can have a deep joy because there is hope for a future with God and our loved ones in heaven someday because of the gift of Jesus Christ and His gift of salvation.

This father died on my birthday, December 12. I will never forget him or his special little girl. Every year from now on, I will say a prayer for her on my birthday. But the day he died is also the day he was brought to a new life with Christ. So, in a way, we now share a birthday - my earthly one and his heavenly one.

Our class gave this little girl a special teddy bear with a scarf that we all signed. I also wrote part of our school theme for this year on the scarf: “Love one another.” My second graders and their parents have already been showing love to this family; again, I’m so thankful for our Christian school community. I pray that when she hugs the bear, she will feel God’s presence and comfort in a special way and remember how much she is loved. I also pray that all my students and their families will remember how much God loves all of us.



As I look at the picture of the teddy bear,
I see the love of children,
a teacher,
a family,
a school community,
and, most of all,
the love of God.