Ed - please know that we are holding you in our hearts and prayers.
The following is something I feel connected to and often share. I hope it brings some amount of comfort.
The Red Tape and the White Rope
Imagine that you are holding the end of a white rope in your hand. It is a long white rope – VERY long. Imagine that that white rope goes from where you are standing all the way to the East Coast of the United States. Imagine that it keeps on going – all around the globe until it comes back to you.
Imagine that the white rope keeps going past you and goes around the globe again – and again… hundreds of times… thousands of times… hundreds of thousands of times.
Imagine that towards the end of the rope you are holding the rope is wrapped in one inch of red tape. The red tape is about a foot from the very end of the rope.
The red tape represents our life on earth. Some people get more than an inch of red tape and some people get less. Some infants barely get any red tape at all.
The White Rope represents our entire existence here on earth and when we return to our Father in Heaven. Now notice that the red tape isn’t at the very beginning of the white rope. It’s set farther down, because God is already at work before our earthly life, preparing legacies and places for us. He makes a mother first a daughter, and perhaps a sister or a friend long before she becomes a mother. That first stretch of white rope signifies God’s work on the next generation before they come to exist on earth.
When we lose someone we love, it hurts us. However, the pain we feel is not shared by the one we lost. They have joined our Father in Heaven and have gained an eternal perspective.
When that person sees you again, it will seem like the blink of an eye since they last saw you.
The most amazing thing is, that when YOU see that person again, you will have also gained the eternal perspective again and it will seem like the blink of an eye since you last saw them as well.
May the Peace of our Father in Heaven, the Peace which passes ALL understanding, be with you today and in the years to come until we all gain the eternal perspective and join our Father who is in Heaven.