I had a funeral today for an 89 year old lady whom I did not know until I gave her Last Rites last week. She had suffered a life's worth of tragedy. When she was 8 years old, a child threw a lit cigarette at her back. Her taffeta dress erupted into flames; and instead of smothering the flames, water was used to put out the fire. This made the burn even worse than the original burn because the result was that her back and internal organs were cooked. To eliminate the possibility of her being made fun of, she was kept home. She never learned how to read or write; she never dated and never married.
If this had happened to you, do you think you might have become embittered? Or self-pitying? Instead of becoming bitter, she accepted what she could not change and became a loving, favorite aunt in her very large extended family and became known as the one who could be counted on to care for the little children in the family. As her eulogist, a nephew, said in his eulogy, "She was dealt lemons in life, and she turned them into lemonade."
Imagine the joy God is having as He welcomes her into Paradise where there will be no more tears, no more suffering, no more scars, no more crying out in pain. Imagine what joy God has whenever He gives the reward of Eternal Life to anyone who has suffered from the actions of others. Oh, the joy in heaven tonight!
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