My dh and I went to Rachael's funeral. We drove out to Salt Lake City on Sunday. The funeral was on Monday. Pete and Corinne had a slide show of Rachael's life--what a silly, fun-loving girl she was!-- One of her older brothers and his wife sang a beautiful song. Pete read a poem he had written for her. All her brothers were pall-bearers. Oh! that made me cry, to see the little ones in their church clothes so seriously helping their big brothers carry their dead sister.
Early the first week of her accident, my dh told me God had given him a word that he felt he should share at her funeral if she died. So he got up and shared how we could all see how much Pete, as a father, loved Rachael. How he was grieving because she had died. How much more does our Heavenly Father love us? So much more than we can imagine. And how much did Corinne love Rachael? How much does a mother love her child? And how much more does God love us and care for us! And yet, God did not spare his only Son, but allowed him to be crucified and die so that we would have the hope of eternal life with him! That's how much he loves us! And if anyone had a new sense of how much God loves them, through seeing their love for Rachael, would they please tell Pete and Corinne.
All the extended family was there, they are all Mormon, or atheists. I was so proud of my dh for getting up in front of a room full of mostly strangers, and saying this. This was very much out of his character to do. Please pray for the extended family.
I thought a lot about how much Pete and Corinne and their family have suffered through this. Rachael didn't suffer at all, really, one minute she was riding her bike, and the next, she fell asleep. When she woke up, it was with angels on either side ushering her to her Savior. I thought of how much people in India are suffering. People in Ethiopia. Afghanistan. All the suffering is like sand at the seashore. Each time someone suffers anew, a new grain of sand is washed up on the shore.
And yet, the skuffering of Hell is like the depths of the ocean. All the sand on all the beaches in the world cannot fill up even one ocean-floor trench! It wouldn't even raise the sea level if it were all cast into the waves!
If one person is saved from Hell because of Rachael's death, the suffering of her family would not be in vain. Pete said, "If one of my family members escaped Hell, the suffering would be worth it."
And are we not all one human family?
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