You have heavenly family

When someone you love dies, you feel terrible. You're sad and angry and lonely, and you miss the person so much you don't know what to do. You want it to be just a bad mistake that she's gone. It takes a long time for the hurt you feel to get smaller.

Jesus understood how people feel when they lose someone they care about. In this week's Gospel (John 12:20-33), He reminds us that even though we miss people who die, they're happy with God in heaven.

"Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it stays just a grain of wheat," Jesus taught His followers. "But if it dies, it gives us food. Just like that, whoever leaves life in this world will live forever in heaven."

When a person you love dies, some grownups try to make you understand why it happened. They want you to remember that the person was very sick or hurt, and it was better for him to be with God, where he won't be hurting any more.

Jesus knew that what grownups tell you about someone going to heaven may not make you feel better about the person not being here with you. So Jesus reminded us that like wheat that grows in a field, people are just people while they're alive. After someone goes to heaven, though, they have a whole new life with God.

Even though you miss people who are gone, they aren't gone forever -- because when you go to heaven someday, you'll see them again.

When you lose someone special, you want it to be a mistake. But Jesus said that it's never a mistake: People go back to heaven when God says it's time. And like a grain of wheat that dies to be made into bread, people who die get to live again in heaven.

Losing someone makes you feel angry, sad and lonely, and that's okay. But in the Gospel story, Jesus told us that we can also feel happy for the person -- because he might be dead to us, but he's alive with God.

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK: Jesus, help me remember that everyone who dies is alive in heaven with you. Amen!

(03-13-97)

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