oil on canvas
48" x 24"
March 11, 2004
I’ve started to think more about heaven in the past few years. It seems that I’m starting to know more and more people who have someone they love there.
We have a tiny baby in heaven. She was only weeks along in her development when she left my womb and went to be with Jesus. Many of our friends also have babies they’ve never met who are also there too. Hannah, the mother of one of my dearest friends, went to heaven last spring after a long and courageously fought battle with Cancer. She herself has several babies there that she was just finally able to meet and hold for the first time.
My most recent reminder of heaven is a little baby girl named Grace. We learned about her upcoming arrival while I was still in the hospital recovering from the birth of our son Nathan. At the time, we thought our two babies would grow up to be great friends as they would be so close in age. However, as time went by, the doctors discovered that Grace would be unable to live outside the womb. Grace would be going to heaven soon, to join so many other loved ones who have gone before her to that place of eternal beauty.
Grace’s life, although seemingly short through human perspective, is actually just beginning. This little girl is about to be swept up into the loving arms of her heavenly father. She is going to A PLACE OF PERFECT LOVE AND PEACE. A place of constant joy and warmth and laughter, where she will bask in the glorious presence of her creator for all of eternity. I like to think that she will spend her time dancing around the throne of Jesus, hand-in-hand with all the other babies we know and love who are also in heaven.
And although it is so very sad that her mom and dad will not be able to watch her grow from a little girl into a woman, Grace’s life has been a precious gift to her parents. They will tell you that knowing her has allowed them to experience firsthand, an unmerited peace that only God can give; a peace that has allowed them to feel His love and faithfulness more strongly than at any other time during their lives.
This painting is for the family that Grace leaves behind when she’s delivered into the arms of Jesus. It’s also for the many other families I know with babies, mothers, and husbands already there in that beautiful place. My prayer is that those of us left behind will gain great comfort and a sense of anticipation from knowing with confidence that we too will someday spend eternity dancing around the throne of heaven along with little baby Grace.
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of god—not by works, so that no one can boast.” —Ephesians 2:4–9
Grace Francis was born March 16, 2004. She was able to spend approximately one minute in the arms of her parents before going home to be with Jesus. To read her parent’s story, click here.
UPDATE -- 2006: Two years later in mid-March of 2006, Grace‘s parents were blessed with a second daugther, Brennah McRae Francis. Brennah‘s birth mother has entrusted Erin and Brett Francis with the awesome privilege of raising this precious baby girl. They were able to hold (and fall in love with) Brennah when she was just hours old, and have been lovingly caring for her ever since she left the hospital where she was born.
