"There is a Reaper,
whose name is Death,
And, with his sickle keen,
He reaps the bearded grain at
a breath,
And the flowers that grow
between.
"Shall I have naught
that is fair?" saith he;
"Have naught but the
bearded grain?
Though the breath of these
flowers is sweet to me,
I will give them all back
again."
He gazed at the flowers with
tearful eyes,
He kissed their drooping
leaves;
It was for the Lord of
Paradise
He bound them in his sheaves.
"My Lord has need of
these flowerets gay,"
The Reaper said, and smiled;
"Dear tokens of the
earth are they,
Where he was once a child.
"They shall all bloom in
fields of light,
Transplanted by my care,
And saints, upon their
garments white,
These sacred blossoms
wear."
And the mother gave, in tears
and pain,
The flowers she most did
love;
She knew she should find them
all again
In the fields of light above.
O, not in cruelty, not in
wrath,
The Reaper came that day;
'Twas an angel visited the
green earth,
And took the flowers
away."
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It's important to remember
that children sometimes return early to the presence of Heavenly Father, but it
is all part of His plan. Death is not the anger of God: it is His mercy.
