Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Dear brothers and sisters,
First we want to thank you for lifting our family up in prayer and for being the loving hands of our Heavenly Father to us. It has meant a great deal to us.
Last evening the Lord called our fifth arrow home to glory to enter the Lord’s rest, joining three siblings there.
We now ask that you would mourn with us the loss of Peace Nikonos. The name Nikonos means “of the one who overcomes“. Our little one–as a child of the covenant–has overcome the death imputed to all men through Adam, and has entered into the peace and rest imputed by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ through faith. Praise be to God that death is not the end, but it has been vanquished by Christ. Sin and death no longer have any hold over this precious child. Surely the resurrection is our hope and our peace. And our portion may be found before the throne of Christ.
Please pray with and for us. This loss, the death of our child, is extremely difficult for us to bear. We feel extremely weak in emotions and spirit. Pray that God, our high tower and our refuge, would comfort us. Pray that God would deliver us from the temptation to doubt, fear, despair or become bitter. And pray that the Lord would hear our cry to enable us to serve Him in the raising of children.
“May the Lord give strength to His people! May the Lord bless His people with peace!” – Psalm 29:11
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33
“The one who overcomes will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels.” – Revelation 3:5
“Behold I am making all things new. … It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who overcomes will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” – Revelation 21:5-7
~thank you
beside the flesh of your exalted Saviour, and ye go on after your own.
~Samuel Rutherford
They are not lost to you that are laid up in Christ’s treasury in heaven.
At the resurrection ye shall meet with them:
there they are, sent before but not sent away.
Your Lord loveth you, who is homely to take and give, borrow and lend.
~Samuel Rutherford