Jack Hayford - Ill Hold You in Heaven

1986, 1990, 2003 Jack W. Hayford

The essential substance of this book first published in the Living Way Paperback Early Flight 1986.

Published by Chosen Books
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
chosenbooks.com

Chosen Books is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

Chosen edition published 2014

ISBN 978-1-4412-6824-2

Previously published by Regal Books

Ebook edition originally created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Other versions used are:

NEBFrom The New English Bible. The Delegates of Oxford University Press and The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press 1961, 1970, 1989. Reprinted by permission.

TLBScripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible, copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1
The Gift of Lives

Chapter 2
When Does Significance Begin?

Chapter 3
Life to What Degree?

Chapter 4
Destiny in the Afterworld

Chapter 5
In Heaven as a Person

Chapter 6
Instruments of Healing

Chapter 7
The Heartbeat of Love

Chapter 8
Three Steps to Loving

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has... sent
Me to heal the brokenhearted.

LUKE 4:18

As a pastora shepherd of soulsI find myself, time and time again, meeting people who have suffered the death of a baby, either before or shortly after birth. If you have experienced the great crisis to which I refer, its quite possible that you are searching for somethinganythingpowerful enough to calm the questions that may rage inside your heart.

You may be among the great number of women and men who have planned, prepared and prayed for a child, but the baby was stillborndead on arrival. Perhaps you are one of the thousands of parents whose newborn babies lived so short a life as to have hardly truly arrivedbabies who died a few hours, days or weeks after birth. Together, parents of the stillborn and of the newly born who die form a distinct group of people who had a baby they never got to keep.

Or maybe you are the parent of a child lost to abortion. If so, you may be like so many others I meet who are suffering greatly in the aftermath of the procedure that proponents hail as prompt and painless. Untold numbers of women and men are stumbling through the emotional carnage following an abortionsome believing their decision was wrong; others racked with uncertainty. The pain runs deep.

Finally, you may belong to a third group of the disappointed: the hosts of women who longed for a child, but two or threefour or maybe fivemonths into their pregnancy something went awry and they miscarried.

If you have experienced the wrenching loss of a child in the womb or during the weeks and months following birth, you are hardly alone. The parents of the stillborn or the newly born who die, the miscarrying mother and the maternal victim of abortion are all parents of children who were designed for a lifetime of purpose but whose lives were cut short.

In the Creators finest plan, these children were not intended for the disease, death or destruction that took their lives. Yet they died. Like a rescheduled airplane suddenly departing ahead of time, these children took an early flight. Before we could ever know themtheir possibilities, their presence and their purposethey were gone. Whether their hastened departure was forced through accident, neglect or abuse of the fetus, disease, deformity or simple malfunction, suddenly they departed.

For those who remain at the airport of the present, there can be tears, pain, bitterness and questionsbut I assure you that there is also hope.

In recent years, as I encountered increasing numbers of hurting people whose parenthood had been cut short, I began to search Gods Word to seek a case for hope. I wanted to find truth that could heal and give comfort in the midst of the pain following the amputation of a life from its potential; thus, this book.

In the following chapters you will find scripturally based answers to many of the questions you may have found yourself asking: At the time of my miscarriage or abortion, did my baby have a soul? What about the stillborn child or the baby who dies shortly after birth? Is he or she in heaven? If so, what is he or shethis child who never developed character or personality beyond the womblike? Will I ever see my child again? And how will I recognize my child when we finally meet in heaven?

The purpose of this book is to offer a path to hope and healingnot through happy talk or platitudes, but through the solid footing of the holy truth of Gods Word. The biblical foundation for hope and comfort is strong; the Scriptures indeed offer a way out of the depths of grief.

If you have experienced the loss of a child through the tragedy of abortion, Gods Word offers you something more: forgiveness and healing for the series of choices that led you into the abortionists chamber. Abortion is not only a tough topic but a delicate one. And its a tragedy. But my object in these pages is not to elaborate that tragedy or underscore the facts of human failure. Rather, I seek to offer comfort and direction for the future.

There was a time when I was not unlike many Christians who wrestle against bitterness, self-righteousness and even condemnation toward the parents of aborted children. I was not only angry that lives were being taken, but I also felt superior. And that was the hateful blindness I had to deal withthe cocksureness of my self-righteous opinion.

In that state, I couldnt even begin to gain perspective on the fear, pain, hurt, agony and embarrassment of so many who needed something else from me. Society has so liberalized abortion that the uninformed and uncounseled readily give in until, in the aftermath of the experience, the living victims bend beneath another burdenthe burden of questions such as, What have I done? Who might the child have become? Was I right? Wrong? Can I ever forget? What would have happened if I hadnt... ?

Having met increasing numbers of women and men who ache over the ramifications of their right to choose has not changed my conviction about the wrongness of abortion, but it has cured my soul of the wrongness of my superficial point of view. I now see a place where life, light and love are desperately neededa place in our world where truth not only can shine like a beacon light discerning good and evil but where that same truth can also shed the light of healing, warmth and hopefulness. If you are, indeed, one of the many adult victims of abortion, then read on. You are on the verge of discovering forgiveness, healing and hope.