Gifts From Above

So many hurting people crave comfort. They crave a sign that they are going to be okay or that their departed loved ones are okay.

(Last week I shared a quote from “God’s Healing in Grief.” The article is “Are They Okay.“)

Grieving people crave comfort so much that they may be deceived into believing that a butterfly that lands on them is their loved one come to give them a sign. Or that a rainbow or cardinal is a gift from their departed family member. Or a heart in the clouds indicates their loved one is with them.

Yet scripture tells us that when we die, when we are away from our earthly body, we who are believers in Jesus Christ are at home with the Lord. Our loved ones are in the presence of Christ. Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father. Departed saints are in His presence worshipping at the throne of God

When we see beautiful things in nature – a flower, cardinal, butterfly, heart-shaped clouds, or lovely sunset – we must remember this passage from James:

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

James 1:16-18 | ESV

Do not be deceived, my sweet friends. These gifts – amazing gifts in nature all around us – are not signs from our departed loved ones. Every good and perfect gift is from God.

God loves us so much He gives us good gifts. One way He comforts us is by giving us beauty. He lets us know he cares for us first by having sent Jesus to die so we may have eternal life. He tell us in His Word that He loves us. And He gives us gifts of nature and beauty to show His glory, His power, and His love for us.

It is easy to be deceived when we are hurting. 

When we are grieving the loss of someone we love, we desperately want and need comfort. We miss them. We miss their presence in our lives. Our missing them can lead us to misunderstand that our loved ones have become angels or god-like and that they now protect us, watch over us, and send us gifts and signs.

And so, when we see a feather, beautiful sunflower, or our loved one’s favorite rose, it’s nice to think of those things as being from them. It brings us a kind of comfort.

Yet, that kind of comfort is fleeting, it is an insufficient shadow of the true comfort we receive from God and it gives us only momentary peace.

Peace – true peace – comes from God, the Fathet of all mercies and God of comfort. Everlasting peace, which includes fullness of joy, is from God. Jesus told us in John that he came and taught Truth so that we would have fullness of joy, that we would have His peace not the peace the world gives, and that we may have eternal life.


My friends, eternal life does not begin when we die; eternal life begins the moment we come to life in Christ! 

When we begin to walk with God by faith, believe He is who He says is (that Jesus Christ is the Son of God), confess our sins and ask forgiveness we take our first baby steps into eternal life. As we grow in our knowledge of God and in our relationship with Him, we are living eternal life, today, here on earth. An eternal life that never ends! We will live eternally with our Savior even after our earthly body perishes.

Part of our eternal life is growing in our knowledge of Truth. Growing in our knowledge of the Word. We learn who He is; we learn His nature; we learn what He has done for us and what He promises to do.

As we grow in our understanding of God and in our relationship with Him, we need to put off falsehood and cling to truth. Part of this includes understanding about what happens when people die. Friends, please study your Bible and learn what God’s Word says about life after death.

Do not be deceived by your desire for comfort. Do not settle for temporary or insufficient comfort from worldly things. Do not listen to lies from the enemy. Know truth! The truth is that every good and perfect gift is from God.


This study will help you learn truth from God’s Word about life after death and comfort from God.
Available from www.precept.orgimg_3154

Bible study, Christianity, Life after Death


KathleenBDuncan

I write about my life, my journey, my family, and my faith. I am wife to one, mom to seven with one in heaven, and grandmother to many. I am also full-time caregiver to my stepmom E who suffers from dementia due to Alzheimer’s. In my spare time I like to read, travel, crochet, bike, and play with our black pug Molly.

Comments (10)

  • My daughter talked about ladybugs on the last few days she was with us after a 5 year cancer battle. While I definitely don’t believe she is now a ladybug, every time I see one, I am reminded of her beautiful life, smile, and laughter. So I will always stop to say, ” I love you and miss you” when one lands in my path.
    And just so you know,I have been missing her so much today and your pictures posted here of ladybugs were beautiful and comforting reminders. So thank you!

    i think God is fine with us being reminded of a beautiful life by His wonderful creations in nature- simply reminding us of the glorious God we have and the eternal home waiting for us with our loved ones there.

    • Absolutely! I see some things that remind me of my mother-in-law. She loved birds, cardinals particularly. So when I see one I think of her. I know it’s not her, but it causes me to remember beautiful things about her.

  • Thank you. Kathleen. This teaching is so needed today, though it is not always welcome. There is so much error out there that brings a counterfeit “comfort”. And then one falsehood leads to another, and another. Self deception is scary. God may bring me a butterfly to brighten my day, but my son now resides permanently in Heaven.

    • Yes, one falsehood leads to another.

      When we “talk” to our loved ones in heaven and ask them for wisdom, advice, signs, etc…Are we turning them into idols? Are we looking to them instead of God to provide us these things? I wonder…

    • Yes! We have led a group through it over the past couple of months and will start a new online study on April 2. We run ten weeks. Two hours each class.

      The first class everyone introduced themselves and we talked about the format of the class. Then we discussed the introduction and lesson One. Participants work through the lessons at home, then we discussed two lessons each week. The last week we discussed Lesson 18 and went back through each lesson looking at highlights for review.

      The group we just finished with all loved it!

      The lessons could also be used as stand-alone discussions. For example, one lesson is on choosing gratitude another is about Heaven. You could use either of those for a monthly meeting discussion time.

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