THE LOSS OF CHILDREN

As to your fears about the health or life of your dear children, lay them upon Christ’s shoulders; let Him bear all. Loose your hold of them all; and when your dear Lord pulleth, let them go with faith and joy. It is a tried faith to kiss a Lord that is taking from you.

Let your children be as so many flowers borrowed from God. If the flower die or wither, thank God for a summer loan of them.

Take no heavier lift of your children than your Lord allows. Give them room beside your heart, but not in the yoke of your heart, where Christ should be; for then they are your idols, not your bairns. If your Lord take any of them home to His house before the storm come on, take it well. The owner of the orchard may take down two or three apples off His own trees, before midsummer, and ere they get the harvest sun; and it would not be seemly that His servant the gardener should chide Him for it. Let our Lord pluck His own fruit at any season He pleaseth: they are not lost to you;
they are laid up so well, as that they are reposited in heaven, where our Lord’s best jewels lie.

Samuel Rutherford