Chapter 20

This is a very sad place. He is buried at the end of a row full of babies as this is the baby part of the cemetary.

That Friday was Good Friday, the day our Savior died on the cross for our sins and was placed in the grave. This would also be the day we would go to the graveside to bury our son. We prayerfully decided that it would just be the pastor, Joey and I for the funeral. We would bring our family and friends after the head plate was in place. As soon as we pulled into the cemetery and I saw the chairs set up and his little white casket in place, I began to weep again realizing this was for my baby, MY baby. Oh, it was so hard to believe that this was happening to me. We took an arrangement of flowers to place by his casket made of white roses and Easter lilies wrapped with a blue sheer ribbon. The pastor arrived right as we did and we sat together quietly. I was touched to see a little ceramic angel with blue wings placed there by Ann and Jud and a floral arrangement in a vase with a little blue glass bird and a white teddy bear placed by Joey’s sisters’ family. We gave pastor a poem to read and two songs to be played during the service, and he would also bring a message. The poem was given to me in a sympathy card and it went like this…

If We Could See Beyond Today

If we could see beyond today
As God can see,
If all the clouds should roll away,
The shadows flee;
O’er present grief’s we would not fret,
Each sorrow we would soon forget,
For many joys are waiting yet
For you and me.

If we could know beyond today
As God doth know,
Why dearest treasures pass away,
And tears must flow;
And why the darkness leads to light,
Why dreary day will soon grow bright,
Some day life’s wrong will be made right,
Faith tells us so.

If we could see, if we could know
We often say,
But God in love a veil doth throw
Across our way,
We cannot see what lies before,
And so we cling to Him the more,
He leads us till this life is o’er,
Trust and obey.

-Norman J. Clayton