Bob: The Bible, when King David lost his infant son to death, we're told that David went from mourning to moving on. He did so because he realized what was true about his child – that his son had gone home. When David and Nancy Guthrie lost their daughter, Hope, Anne Graham Lotts helped provide that same perspective for them.[ Read Full Transcript ]

Anne: (From audiotape.) You know, I wonder what Hope enjoys, and I wonder what colors would she enjoy and what style of clothes would she enjoy wearing and what music would she enjoy listening to and what books would she enjoy reading, and then, you know, it just hits us with a pang, "We'll never know." But Jesus knows, and He's prepared the things that she would enjoy that would make her feel, when she comes through that door, "This is my home."

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Friday, December 22nd. Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. We will reflect today on the powerful and profound life of a little girl named Hope.

And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us on the Friday edition. We've spent the week walking not just once but twice through the valley – not just of the shadow of death, the valley that takes you right to death's door. David and Nancy Guthrie have joined us this week, Dennis, and twice in the last five years, they have welcomed new children into their home, Hope and Gabriel, and have then quickly walked with them to the place where they went on ahead to be with the Lord and are now waiting for Mom and Dad to catch up to them someday.

Dennis: And, Nancy, David, again, I want to thank you for sharing your story here on FamilyLife Today all this week. Today we want to do something – I don't know that we've done other than maybe a couple of times in 10 years of radio. We want to visit a funeral.

You know, Ecclesiastes, chapter 7, says it's better to visit the house of sorrows and suffering than to go to the house of pleasure. The reason is because the living take it to heart. We, who are alive, visit a funeral, and we are reminded to reflect upon our lives and how we live it.

We look at people who suffer like you suffered with two children who lived around six months before they died, and we've heard all this week your story. Your story was also written about in "Time" magazine back in July of 2001, and I want to read about the funeral before we hear the message given by Anne Graham Lotts at Hope's funeral.

But this is what the writer for "Time" magazine said about Hope's memorial service. He said, "Hope's memorial service at Nashville's Christ Presbyterian Church was a showcase of faith's bulwark against sorrow. For all the tears shed, one guest called it a victory not just for Hope in heaven but also for David and Nancy, who had emerged with faith intact. There was, without boastfulness, a sense of a challenge met and of a completion."

How was that true, Nancy? How was the challenge met and how was there a completion that was celebrated at Hope's memorial service?

Nancy: I think what he's referring to is the fact that so many people, when they experience the loss of a child, they are crushed by it, and, in a sense, they stop living. And if they've been a person of faith, perhaps they give up on that faith because it is such a crushing hurt. And I think what he saw was that our faith stood firm, and even though we were hurting deeply, even though we didn't completely understand what we'd experienced, even though we hadn't asked for it and wouldn't want it, we trusted God with it, and we believed firmly in His sovereignty and in His plan and in His purpose.

Bob: Dennis, what our listeners are going to hear at this point is the message that Anne shared with the hundreds who had gathered at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville on the day of Hope's memorial service, and it is a message that it compelling, a message of hope. Let's listen together – here is Anne Graham Lotts.

Anne: (From audiotape.) I'm reading a few verses from Revelation, chapter 21, and the Apostle John says, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall no longer be any death, and there shall no longer be any mourning, and there shall no longer be any crying, and there shall no longer be any pain. The first things have passed away, and He who sits on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new,' and he said 'Right, for these words are faithful and true.'" Would you pray with me.

Father, we come before you this morning with praise and thanksgiving that our God is faithful and true, and His words we can believe and place our faith in and therefore we know, with confidence, that our Hope is in heaven, and we ask this morning that you open our eyes and give us a glimpse of her heavenly home. We give you the praise and the glory in Jesus's name, Who makes it possible. Amen.

There's a story of old Samuel Morrison, who was a missionary to China for 25 years. Because of his age and his ill health was retiring, and he was traveling home to the United States on an ocean liner on which President Theodore Roosevelt was also traveling after being on a three-week safari in Africa. And they arrived in the New York Harbor, and it looked like the entire world had turned out to welcome President Roosevelt home, and there bands that were playing and flags that were waving and banners that were flying and flashbulbs that were popping, and people were singing, and then as the boat pulled into the dock, and the gangway was let down, and President Roosevelt stepped off onto the gangplank, there was this thunderous ovation as all of New York City turned out to welcome the president home.

And old Samuel Morrison stepped off the boat on that same gangplank, and nobody even noticed. And he walked through the crowd, and nobody called his name. He was standing at the curb trying to catch a cab, and he said he was complaining in his heart, "Lord, I've been in China for 25 years serving you. No one is here to welcome me home. President Roosevelt has been in Africa three weeks killing animals, and the whole world has turned out for him."

And Samuel Morrison said to his heart came this still, small voice, "But, my son, you're not home yet." Home. In the context of that story is talking of heaven, and if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord. If you're a child of God, then you're just a stranger in this world, you're just a pilgrim passing through. Heaven is your home.

And so I come this morning with joy, knowing that our hope is in heaven, and I want to tell Matt, especially, where his little sister is. Matt, do you wonder where she is today? And we're going to talk about Hope's new home, and Hope is in a place that's been prepared just for her.

In Revelation, chapter 21 says that it was prepared in detail and not only prepared in detail but prepared by the Lord Himself. John, chapter 14, Jesus said, "I'm going to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I'm going to come back and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also." Heaven is prepared as a love gift for those that have that personal relationship with Jesus.

On one of my trips to India, I went to the Taj Mahal in Agra, and looked at this magnificent building, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was built by an Indian maharajah as a tomb in which to bury his wife, and it took him over 22,000 craftsman over 20 years to build the Taj Mahal.

Now, sitting there thinking, if a pagan Indian prince could built this exquisite building, 22,000 workers, 20 years, as a tomb in which to buy his wife of only 14 years, what is our Lord Jesus Christ preparing for His bride? Not to bury her in but to live with her forever and ever? And we know it's taken Him at least 2,000 years. And so Hope's home is one that has been prepared for her in love by Jesus and prepared in love and in detail. It says prepared as a bride, as prepared for her bridegroom, and last year all three of my children got married within eight months of each other, and I learned a lot about brides.

One of the things I learned is that they're prepared, and they prepare big things like the groom, and then they prepare the wedding day and the date and the place and who will officiate and who will attend them, and they prepare the wedding gown and their flowers and their vows and every detail of a wedding and a bride is prepared.

And if you've ever looked at the exquisite detail of a flower or the exquisite detail of the feathers on a bird, or the exquisite detail of a baby's body, you know that God is into detail. He loves detail, and not just detail for detail's sake but making heaven absolutely perfect and beautiful and exactly what Hope would enjoy.

When my children come home – they're all gone now – when they come home, and I know they're coming, I begin to prepare for them, because I want them, when they walk through that door, to know that they have been expected, they are welcome; that this is their home. And when little Hope Lauren Guthrie entered heaven, she came through those pearly gates, and she knew she was welcomed, she had been expected, and heaven had been prepared just for her.

And I thought, "You know, I wonder what Hope enjoys, and I wonder what colors would she enjoy and what style of clothes would she enjoy wearing and what music would she enjoy listening to and what books would she enjoy reading, and then, you know, it just hits us with a pang, "We'll never know." But Jesus knows, and He's prepared the things that she would enjoy that would make her feel, when she comes through that door, "This is my home. I've been expected, and I belong here."

So Hope is in heaven, and it's a place that's been prepared in love and in detail just for her. In fact, if nobody else ever entered those pearly gates, just Hope, Jesus would still have taken 2,000 years to prepare that place for her.

And, you know, heaven is also prepared for you, if you would choose to claim Jesus as your Savior. You know something a lot of people aren't quite aware of, that God never intended you and me to die. Death was not a part of His original picture for the human race. He created you and me to love Him and to live forever with Him in that love relationship. And then sin entered our lives, and we chose to disobey Him and rebel against Him, and the Bible says the wages of sin is death, and because of our sin we are separated from Him.

And yet God, in His mercy and His grace, has extended Himself to us through Jesus Christ at the cross that we might come back into that right relationship with Him now but that we might also know that when we die, we're going to just be ushered into our heavenly home. It's just a moment in time when our faith becomes sight, and we will enter into a place that's been prepared just for us out of love in detail with all the things that will make us feel welcomed and give us the assurance that we have come home. Our Hope is in heaven.

Is your hope in heaven? And heaven has not only been prepared for our Hope, but heaven is a perfect place, and this passage of Scripture tells us that there is no separation in heaven, no more things that cause separation, no wars, no refugee camps, no ethnic cleansing, no racial prejudice, no misunderstanding, no critical spirits, no hard feelings, no hurt feelings, no divorce, no death. Heaven is a perfect place. There will be no separation. We're never going to gather for an event such as this. We'll be together. Not only together with our greater family of God, we're going to be together with God and His Son and His Holy Spirit.

Heaven is perfect. There is no separation, there are no scars in heaven. It says that He is making everything new. He says it's a new heaven, a new earth, behold, I am making everything new. You know, there are certain scars that just come with life and living and experiences and – besides the physical scars that sometimes we bear. And I wonder if there is somebody here who is bearing scars on your emotions and scars in your memory and scars perhaps because of abuse or injustice, and when we get to heaven there will be no more scars.

And even think of Hope's precious little body and the tubes and the things that she was given in order to extend her life, and the little scars they would leave, and there's going to be no scars in heaven except the ones on His brow, and the ones on His hands and feet, the ones on His side to remind us always of the grace of God and what it cost Him to offer heaven to us as our home.

But there are no scars in heaven, and there's no suffering in heaven, no suffering at all, no blindness and no lameness and no deafness and no sickness and no diabetes and no arthritis and no Parkinson's disease and no cataracts and no strokes and no cancer and no Zellweger syndrome and no pain and no seizures and no hospitals and no funerals and no grief and no tears and no broken homes and no broken hearts and no broken hopes of what might have been and no broken Hope. There is no suffering in heaven. It's a perfect place. Our Hope is in a place that's been prepared just for her, a perfect place.

And early Wednesday morning, I think the Lord Jesus must have been repressing or holding Himself back, and Wednesday morning He got the nod from His Father, and He didn't have to wait any longer, and He came, and He gathered that precious baby into His arms, and He carried her to her heavenly home, and her eyes could see with comprehension, and one of the firs things surely she noticed, if she could drag her eyes away from His face, one of the first things surely she noticed were the gates, because the gates, the Bible says there are 12 of them, and they're made of pearls, and each one of the gates is a single pearl, and Hope must have been overwhelmed with the size of those gates. They hang on walls that are described as being 200 feet thick, and if a pearl is big enough to be a gate in a wall that's 200 feet thick, think of how enormous that pearl is.

And you know how pearls are formed. When a grain of sand gets inside of an oyster, and it irritates the oyster, and so the oyster begins to coat the grain of sand with a layer of mother of pearl, and it continues coating and coating and coating until he no longer feels the irritation. And if we have a pearl large enough to hang in a wall that's 200 feet thick, think of the gigantic suffering that's represented.

And I think those pearly gates mean the only way Hope or I or you or anyone else enters into heaven is through the gigantic suffering, through the blood, through the death, through the cross of Jesus Christ.

And as little Hope, who has more comprehension at this moment than you or I sitting here, entered through those gates of pearl, surely she entered with thanksgiving, not only for the arms that were wrapped around her but for the Savior's arms that have been outstretched for her so long ago making it possible for her to enter into her heavenly home.

Our Hope is in heaven, and there is no doubt in my mind that our Hope was born for a purpose, and she lived for a purpose, and she died for a purpose. And I believe that purpose, as has been stated, was to bring glory to God, and I wonder if one aspect of that purpose is this memorial service this morning, because God knew it would take Hope's death and this memorial service to bring you to the place where you would hear about His love for you, and His invitation to you to make sure on this day that your hope is in heaven.

Bob: Well, that, again, is Anne Graham Lotts, who spoke at the memorial service, the funeral that was held for Hope Guthrie a few years ago. We've talked about Hope's life this week and about her little brother Gabe, who was born with the same genetic condition that led to his death at the age of six months just like his big sister.

Dennis, I want our listeners to know we have copies of the book that Nancy has written called "Holding On to Hope," that tells the story of Hope's life and death available in our FamilyLife Resource Center. We also have a book that Nancy has put together called a "One Year Book of Hope," and that is a daily devotional for folks who are walking through the valley of the shadow of death and who need hope from God's Word, who need to realign their thinking about suffering based on what God says in His Word.

We have both of these books in our FamilyLife Resource Center, and our listeners can go to our website at FamilyLife.com and click the red "Go" button in the middle of the home page. That will take them right to the screen where there is information about these books. You can order online, if you'd like, or call us at 1-800-FLTODAY for more information. You may want to get these books, not for yourself but for someone you know who would benefit from reading through these books, and if you order both of the books, we'll send along at no additional cost the CD audio that feature our conversation this week with David and Nancy Guthrie. Dennis?

Dennis: I always want to thank guests who have been with us and, Nancy, David, you all have been heroic to allow us the privilege of peering back into two valleys in your lives as you two lost not one child but two.

I want to, first of all, thank you for your faithfulness and your obedience and being willing to embrace the will of God and not become embittered, because you wouldn't be sitting here, there would be no message, if you had railed against God. But you have been obedient, and I want to thank you for your honesty, your transparency, and for your book, Nancy, "Holding On to Hope."

Nancy: Thank you.

David: It's been a great pleasure to be with you these days.

Nancy: You know, God never asks us to do anything that He doesn't give us the grace and ability to do, and we're very grateful that He has supplied what we have needed to walk through what He's asked us to walk through.

Dennis: David, it occurs to me that as we close, there is undoubtedly a listener who has listened with an extra keen ear because of what he is facing or she is facing. Would you pray for that person who is in that valley right now and ask God to meet them there and to lead them as He has led you?

David: Yes, I'd be honored to.

Dear Heavenly Father, we pause right now without any idea specifically of what people might be dealing with right now but with a real certainty that all over this country, all around the world, people are walking through difficult places right now and hurting and being hurt and feeling disillusioned. This is a fact of life in this fallen world in which we live.

But, Father, I just know this – I know from my own experience and from the experiences that Nancy and I have shared together that You are faithful; that You took us to a place that we couldn't imagine, and that You asked us to walk through a place that was darker than we could imagine. And yet in the midst of it, in the very darkest part of it, we found You there, and we recognize that You never left us.

And, Lord, I pray for those people right, for that listener that Dennis just described, who is reaching out for answers, that desperately wants to find some meaning and some peace in the midst of what they're going through. Father God, I pray not that they would find the answers that they're looking for, but that they would find You there. Lord God, I just ask for that person who is struggling and hurting right now, You provide that peace that only comes from You, and that comfort that is only found in an understanding that whatever we go through here, our soul is safe with You.

Thank You for loving us more than we can ever imagine and keeping us through the darkest of times. In Christ's name we pray, amen.

Bob: FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.