You'll Get Through This

After returning this week from a trip to Key West with Ella and Joel and then attending the Women of Faith conference in Charlotte, I have seen this passage by Max Lucado several times.

You will get through this.
It won't be painless.
It won't be quick.
But God will use this mess for good.
Don't be foolish or naive.
But don't despair either.
With God's help, you will get through this.  Max Lucado

As the air gets cooler and we all start to hibernate inside, everything around us, (socially) calms down.  The summers around my house are filled with kids, hours at the pool, sun tanned bodies, flip flops, bags full of snacks and drinks and endless wet towels from the pool to wash.  Those days are gone until next summer and then we will do it all over again.  I remember our last visit to our neighborhood pool.  It was very different than any other.  On a normal day, Breiner would be diving off the diving board jumping in and swimming to the side only to continue that routine over and over again.  Thanks to Katie Styles, he learned to swim without a life jacket this past summer.  The last day he spent at the pool was very different than his normal visit.  The pool has two large bricked areas that house many plants.  Butterflies swarmed these areas daily.  On this particular day, Breiner would stalk the butterflies only to grab them, scream at me telling me he got one and then let them go.  He did this countless times.  I remember Joel coming home from a case that he had done earlier that day and stopping by the pool.  He just ran in to say hi to Ella and Breiner and then ran home.  I remember Breiner catching his last butterfly and yelling, "Mom!  Take a picture and send it to Daddy."  So, of course, I did.  He then let the butterfly go and then we went home to continue our daily adventures of me just making sure he did not hurt himself.  He was such an active child.  The only thing I regret about chasing him around was that I still cannot figure out why I am not a size 2.  I was constantly on the go.  :)  Now looking back, I realize that Breiner's life kind of symbolizes him catching those butterflies, watching them trying to fly away and then releasing them.  Breiner's life on earth and the butterflies scattering around the flowers  are alike in many ways.  We run around trying to find the right "flower" only to find one and then run off to another one thinking "life is better somewhere else and wanting more."  As Breiner caught the butterflies and they flew away, I feel like the butterflies symbolize us not knowing what eternity in heaven is like.  We are unsure, may try to get away, but soon as we are set free and realize how wonderful it is and fly away far from the bricked area with potted flowers high up in the sky.  We are then set free.  Until we are set free, I believe that loved ones who have lost someone that means the world to them can only have hope that:
We will get through this.
It will be painful.
It won't be quick.
God WILL use this mess for good.
We can't be foolish or naive.
We cannot despair, but know with God's help, WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS.

(This was the last picture I took of him at the pool catching the butterflies that day.  It is not very clear, but you can see the butterfly in his hand.)