I have been thinking a lot lately of all my friends and family that have lost loved ones recently (or not so recently).
There is never a "good time" to have someone taken from your life.
Watching death come can be a painful journey for all involved, while having them snatched from you suddenly can be a real shock.
In my short 29 years I have experienced more deaths than I care to count.
I hate funeral homes.
Funeral homes exist because death exists.
I think I can safely make the general statement that no one likes funeral homes.
The scene is always the same: grieving immediate family lined up to receive their friends and extended family's hugs and sympathies.
I never know what to say. Is there really anything one can say?
"Sorry. He/She was a good man/woman. They lived a good life."
Those sentiments are all well and good, the family appreciates the effort.
But I've come to understand that just being there, loving and supporting the family, is what matters most.
I have been part of the immediate family, as well as the extended family and friend circle.
Neither is easy.
I have to confess that I have not been back to the local funeral home since my Grampa died. I just can't bring myself to step inside those doors...too many people I held dear to me have passed through there on their way to a cemetery somewhere.
I don't like funerals either.
Sitting there, watching the family weep and struggle to deal with their loss...
Or being the one sitting up front, knowing but not believing it's really happening.
Saying goodbye is never easy. No matter who it is.
Death is not natural.
It's foreign to the way God designed us.
I hate funeral homes. I strongly dislike funerals.
I like cemeteries.
Cemeteries are quiet and in a way very calming.
There is still the pain of losing those buried, marked only by a piece of rock.
However, for me, there is the knowledge that they are no longer suffering. They are sleeping a dreamless and painLESS sleep. They no longer have any worries or cares.
I claim the cemetery to be one of my favorite places on this earth because someday it will NOT be quiet!
Someday Jesus WILL come back!
Someday there will be a SHOUT!
Someday a trumpet will BLOW!
Someday those who are now sleeping will WAKE UP!
Someday the dead will be ALIVE again!
Someday I will see my loved ones RISE from those dirty graves!
Someday!
I want to be in the middle of a cemetery when Jesus calls the dead from their sleep and takes all of us to Heaven to be with Him.
On earth there is pain and death and tears.
In Heaven there will be no pain, no death, and no tears!
As I sit here typing, crying for yet another loved one who has gone to sleep in Jesus, I have HOPE that I will see him again.
Oh blessed HOPE!
