The death of a child. Nothing can prepare us for such a task. We can imagine in our minds what it must be like, but we cannot know until we have been there the emptiness and the pain.

Joe Bayly wrote about the death of the young from firsthand experience. He and his wife lost three children: one at eighteen days, after surgery; another at five years, with leukemia; the third at eighteen years, after a sledding accident complicated by mild hemophilia. Joe said, "Of all deaths, that of a child is most unnatural and hardest to bear." He did not underestimate the grief of parents. He added, "When a child dies, part of the parents is buried." (1)

Such tragedies occur in presidential mansions as well as in average homes like ours.

The former president of France, Charles de Gaulle, was a man of extraordinary strength and determination. What many of us may not know is that he and his wife were parents of a daughter with Down''s syndrome. Her name was Anne, and President and Mrs. de Gaulle showed her as much love and care as any devoted parents would. At her funeral in 1948--one of the few times anyone ever saw him cry--de Gaulle took his wife''s arm and said softly, "Come...Now she is like everybody else." (2)

One day in the spring of 1953, George and Barbara Bush were told that their three-year-old daughter, Robin, had leukemia. She hung on for eight months, with Barbara, whose hair began turning white, sitting at her bedside.

Friends say George and Barbara Bush "handed their grief back and forth, acting alternately as mourner and supporter." It is the ideal way for two people to process a tragic event. Mrs. Bush says, "George held me tight and wouldn''t let me go. You know, (many) people who lose children get divorced because one doesn''t talk to the other. [George] did not allow that." (3)

One of the best known instances of the loss of a child was in a well-known king''s palace. The king was named David and the child was as precious to his father as any child who ever lived.

King David''s little son was taken seriously ill. He lingered between life and death for a week. David did everything possible to save him, including turning to God in prayer. He fasted. He spent long hours at night prone on the ground in supplication. The members of his court urged him to get up and to eat, but he would not. His son was ill, and perhaps his prayers could persuade God to cause the boy to recover.

All these things were of no avail. At the end of the week the lad died. King David''s supplications had been so extreme that his servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. "If he acts like that when the boy is only ill," they said, "what will he do when he learns that the child is gone? He may even harm himself." The king could tell from their actions, however, that the child was dead.

To the amazement of everybody, David rose from the ground, washed, put on his robes, and went to the House of God to worship the Almighty. When he returned to the palace, he wanted to eat. Nobody could understand such behavior. So they asked, "How is this? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but when it was dead you arose and ate food."

David answered, "While the child was alive I fasted and wept; for I said, `Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?'' Why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."

David is not discounting the necessity of expressing grief at the loss of a child. Remember, though, this is the man who wrote, "The Lord is my Shepherd...Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me...." David truly believed the promises of God. He knew that his child would not be returning to him, but one day he would be going to his child. No wonder David was called "a man after God''s own heart."

This is a day for recounting the promises of God. This is a day for letting our full weight down on the everlasting arms. This is a day when our faith is more essential than any other.

FIRST OF ALL, LET''S GIVE GOD THANKS FOR THIS YOUNG LIFE THAT HE GAVE US FOR A BRIEF SPAN. After all, life is not to be judged by its quantity but by its quality. Many people live nearly a century and do not bring as much joy into people''s lives as ________________ did. In his short life he carved out a very special place in many people''s hearts. Even though they will always bring an ache to these same hearts, nothing can take from us the special memories his life provided.

Beverly Sills, the great star of the Metropolitan Opera, has known great tragedy. Her son was born autistic. About that time she learned that her two-year-old daughter was deaf and would never be able to hear her mother''s voice. Sills took off a full year to try to cope with her sorrow, and began to work at a school for the deaf with her daughter. When asked if she was happy, the diva replied, "I''m cheerful."

What she meant was that there was a terrible hurt in her heart, but she would go on doing the best that she can.

There is a deep hurt in the heart of those who knew and loved _____________. But you will somehow go on and you will be nourished by precious memories of happier days. We do give God thanks for his young life.

WE ALSO GIVE THANKS THAT GOD HAS TAKEN______________ UNTO HIMSELF. We do not know why such tragedies occur in life. Horace Bushnell once said that there are questions for which we find no answers, questions we do not have time for now, questions that we must hang up until Eternity when there will be time enough. The death of a precious child is one of those questions. The "why" is not nearly as important as the wisdom that says to us that ____________ is now in a Heavenly home where one day those who loved him here will be reunited with him.

Several times a young boy who was seriously ill asked his mother, "What is it like to die?" She prayed for the right answer to give him.

Finally she declared, "Do you remember when you were very small that we would visit your grandmother''s until late in the evening? We would put you to bed at grandmother''s, but you would awake at home the next morning in your own bed. Your father had picked you up in his arms, placed you in the car, and put you in your own bed when we reached home. You didn''t even know until you awakened.

"This is what it is like to die. One day we will go to sleep down here. Jesus will take us in his strong arms to our real home, and we will awaken in the Father''s house." (4)

That is as good a description of the nature of death as we will find in this world. God has taken _____________ into His arms and carried him to his heavenly home.

It is too much for us to have the faith of David. He was unique in the pages of history. Still, his example is a good one for us to follow. In our grief let us not lose sight of the promises of God. Let''s give thanks to Him for allowing us to have ___________ in our lives--even if only for a short time. And let''s give thanks that _____________ is now at home with God.