FUNERAL FOR BARRETT

I will not insult you by claiming to know what you are going through today.

However, I have stood by the side of others who have suffered the sudden unexpected loss of a loved one.

I’ve learned something through these experiences that I want to share with you today.

I learned that it’s OK:

□ to be confused

□ to be angry

□ to be sad

□ I learned that God is sensitive to our pain and allows us, even desires us to express our emotions to Him.

Psalm 139:1–18 ESV

1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. 13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.

While Barrett’s live body was never seen by you he was seen by God.

While his active frame was hidden from us, she was not hidden from God.

Even though his body was small, and did not survive the womb, God knew him.

Verse 16 is especially important.

It says “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before I lived the first one.”

We often see death as untimely, or early – but God is in control.

□ We are surprised, He is not.

□ We don’t understand but He does.

□ We grieve the loss, but heaven welcomes Barrett home.

Jesus promised that he was preparing a place for those who love Him, and He said, “Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of Heaven is made up of little ones like these.”

Today we grieve over the loss of your child:

□ whose eyes you never saw

□ whose ears only new sound from your womb

□ whose lips could not speak

□ whose smile you could not see

But I want you to imagine this in your minds.

□ When Barrett opened his eyes for the first time, they saw the glory of God.

□ When his ears heard outside of the womb for the first time, they heard angels rejoicing.

□ When those lips opened for the first time, they sang out in praise of God.

□ The first person to ever see that little face smile was Jesus.

□ His bearded face broke into a smile, His eyes brightened, and he said, “I know that face!, this is Barrett”