As parents, our number one goal is to get our children home to heaven, where they are safe in the loving arms of Jesus. Although we all assume our children will live to be a ripe old age and eventually bury us, God sometimes has different plans, yes, even better plans.

It is difficult to witness the death and burial of a young child. We agonize that they will miss so much of life. We lament that we had so little time together. The pain is real.

But stop and consider the wisdom, mercy, and love of God. In his infinite wisdom he has taken the child home, avoiding the frustrating trek around the board of life. In his mercy he has delivered that child from sin and its consequences. He has welcomed the child into the heavenly mansions. Baptism assures us that this child is God's child and an heir with Christ in heaven.

The Parker Brothers board game Sorry!, a family favorite in many homes, may teach us something about the "sorry" when it comes to death.

Do you remember the game? You have four pieces that need to get from Start to Home. Various cards will dictate your moves. You need a 1 or 2 to get out of Start. A 4 allows you to go backwards. An 11 lets you trade places with another player. The Sorry! card allows you to replace your opponent's piece with yours and send him back to Start. In the game you may even say, "Sorry," when that happens.

But do you remember the best move of all? It's when you draw a 4 right after you draw a 1 or 2. If you just got out of your start space, you can move your piece backwards so you are just outside the safety zone, ready to go to Home. You avoid the long, tedious trek around the board and any possible frustration from an opponent's Sorry! card.

In God's eyes, maybe the best move for a child is to draw that number 4 card in the board game of Sorry! That takes a child backwards to the safety zone and to Home, where no Sorry! card can touch him.

Will we miss the child? Absolutely! Will we always agree with God's plan? No. We may not be ready to acknowledge, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away, may the name of the LORD be praised" (Job 1:21). But I pray, by God's grace, we will.

In spite of all the pain, the deaths of baptized children can be such a blessing. They are home safe. Sin and its awful consequences can't touch them. Satan cannot reach them. And best of all, we know where we will see them. And yes, all the time we missed with them in this life will be quickly forgotten as we spend eternity with them in heaven.

Is this what Isaiah had in mind when he wrote by inspiration, "The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil" (Isaiah 57:1)?