In Memory

Sometimes events happen very quickly. I've had a pretty good day today - I got up really early, did my "morning things," sat on the porch, had lunch with my friend, Bettye, ran a couple of errands, etc. I'd had a pretty good day. I knew I needed to get back to my exercise program at Curves. I went in, started my workout . . . made it about 1/3 of the way around the circuit . . . and then . . . I saw the sign . . . the memorial fund for Julie . . .

My heart cried, "OH NO!" Julie is young, vibrant, cheerful . . . How can she be gone? Now I understood Michelle's face. She's lost her sister.

Now, I like all the people who work at my Curves. They are each unique, wonderful individuals. I would be this bummed if it had been any of them. But . . . but . . . I have good memories of Julie.

She always greeted me cheerfully and took a genuine interest in me and my daughter. She always wore a big smile. I enjoyed hearing about her kids and their activities.

Death . . .

I'm human. I don't like death . . . .

As Christians we know that death is just a pathway to a new life. Jesus told his disciples he was going to build mansions for them. Revelations tells us about the beauty of heaven. I Thessalonians 4 tells us "We believe that Jesus died and rose and again. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him . . . . we will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air."

I believe in the resurrection . . . I believe in life after death . . . I believe that those who have died go on to a better place because of Jesus love, his death, and resurrection.

But . . .

For those of us left behind, we celebrate a life, we celebrate God's love . . . but we also grieve the loss of someone we know, someone we love, someone we will miss. We cry with the closest family friends, because we know how deep their pain is at the loss of a loved one. And when someone young dies, there is the additional grief at a life cut short - a different feeling from when an older person dies who has lived a long and full life. We grieve for what might have been.

For me, I have this death echoes. Henry's parents are aging, my parents and grandparents are already dead. And I have a close friend battling cancer. Death is too near . . .

God gave us a strong desire to live - we fight for our lives . . . but in the end . . . we will all meet death . . . .

And somehow through it all . . . God is truly good. In ways that I cannot explain or even understand, he comforts those who are grieving. If we are looking . . . he sends us something to be grateful for every day.

Join me in prayer for Julie's family - her husband, her children, her parents, her sister, her extended family and friends. It has been a month since she departed this earth, but her family is still hurting. May they feel God's love, comfort, and presence each day!

Death and Dying

A visitation last night, a funeral today, another church family death last night, and one of my photography friends tragically lost a young adult daughter.

I've lost both my parents and my mother and father-in-law are in their "elderly" years. Those years where health declines - and while it may get "better," better may mean better than the worst, but not as good as before.

The thought crossed my mind that there is a difference between suffering and sorrow.
Suffering occurs when you are ill, feeling pain, hurt. Suffering can be both physical and mental - and sorrow and grief are subsets of suffering.
Sorrow is more mental . . . sadness, grief, a sense of loss - which can be from losing a person in your life, losing a job, changing from one part of life to another - we grieve over many things.

We hate to watch our loved ones suffer - whether from illness or the consequences of poor choices. We grieve when our loved ones pass from this plane of existence to the next. Since it is a one way door, we don't know where they go or what happens next. We only have our faith structure to give us comfort.

I'm Christian . . . so it is of great comfort to me to visualize my loved ones in heaven in the presence of God. I've heard that Christian nurses say that the death of a Christian is so much easier than the death of a non believer. I can believe that because a Christian would not have the fear that death is THE END. Christians have confidence that death is just a transition from the earthly existence to a heavenly one.

But all human spiritual thought - regardless of faith - concludes that humans are more than flesh and blood - that there is a spirit within. While I want to preach Christ and his resurection - I also want to fulfill the exhortation to comfort those who are mourning.

God is bigger than I - God can see with much more clarity than I. While I don't understand why some people die young and others live richly through their old age, I believe that God has a plan for each one of us. And that plan includes our birth, our parents, our genetics, the chance events, the joys, the sorrows, the suffering, and finally our deaths. I believe that God is faithful - and that he will provide a beautiful existence for those that go on before us to the heavenly realms and that He will also provide comfort and peace to those of us left mourning here on earth.