Her name is Grace.

About a week ago Dan was working early on a Saturday morning before the rest of us were awake.  Around 9am he came into the room where the boys and I were hanging out with a distinctly sick look on his face.  "Whats wrong?, spilled out of my mouth without a thought.  He explained that for the past hour and a half he had been trying to turn on his laptop.  Across the screen of the computer were the words, No Operating System Found.  Dan's much more 'techy' than me and he knew right away that his computer had crashed.  About an hour later, a tech support company confirmed that the hard drive and everything on it was gone.  This may not seem like a big deal, but Dan is a church planter and the administrative piece of 1Mosaic runs solely from this piece of technology.  Where other churches might have secretary's, Dan has a file in his laptop and when other churches would have worship leaders, Dan has a laptop.  This same scenario plays out over and over and over.  So knowing the importance of Dan's computer I felt sick for him.  I also feared how the rest of our weekend would be as Dan tried to figure out how to deal with this.

But her name is Grace.   She is an absolutely beautiful baby girl, born just two weeks ago to a young woman in our community.  Grace Ann was born just before midnight on Halloween with dark hair and tiny features.  She spent her entire time in the womb battling Brittle Born Disease.  On the day of her birth, her mother and several family members treasured her arrival, savoring every minute.  Then just 25 minutes later she breathed her last and began her eternal life with Jesus.  Her earthly death was not a surprise.

The following day, November 1st, Dan spent some time with Grace who was still nestled in her mothers arms.  Grace had a sweet smile on her face as if to say, 'I know that my mommy is holding me although I am whole and healthy with my Heavenly Father.'  Her face was peaceful and somehow her mother was too.  Although sorrow filled room 309, her name captured the atmosphere and there was truly GRACE that could be felt.  Dan had time to pray with this family, annoint Grace with oil, as the New Testament says, and live in the moment - taking in all the wide range of emotions.

A few days later, we celebrated the short life of Grace with a burial and balloon launch of 25 pink balloons, symbolizing the 25 minutes that Grace was among us.  It was a beautiful day, unusually sunny for November.  Although tears were shed, there was a spirit of joy as people were coming together to encourage this young mother and to say goodbye to sweet Grace.  The best part was when we let go of the ballons and although Grace's mother warned us to move away from any trees that might tangle the strings, almost all 25 balloons drifted west and got caught in a large oak tree.  The balloons eventually wiggled free, but it was an opportunity to laugh.

Back to the laptop.  Dan like all of us has things that cause him to get angry.  Losing the contents of his computer, the storehouse of our church, would be grounds for feeling like life is hard at times .  And like all of us, he might have taken this frustration out on his family - the ones who can forgive him the fastest.  But her name is Grace.  And through the lessons of watching such a sweet life be taken from this world so quickly, we are reminded of what hard really is.  Hard is losing a child.  Hard is trying to understand the God of the universe when our minds are finite.  Laptops are replaceable and inconveniences pass.  People are important and the rest of life is simply insignificant.

Grace, your short time in this finite life has taught us to keep perspective of the importance of people.  May we honor your life by remembering what hard really is and showing the world grace for anything less.  Looking forward to kissing you again in eternity!