Good morning…
Waking to frigid temperatures, she playfully texted me after yesterday’s post, “Heaven may be better than Hawaii, but I wouldn’t mind going to Hawaii now…” (three smiley, sunglassed emoji faces).
“Agreed. Do you know Messiah and his family?” I asked because my friend has close ties to our cancer community.
“No, I don’t,” she answered. “I was joking because I only read the title of your message. I just read your post and I’m so sorry for his family. But I’ll bet he is blissfully happy – waterfalls and rainbows and all. My childhood music director passed away this week. He had Parkinson’s – so it is easy to imagine him accompanying the angels and playing his heart out with a healed body. No more sorrow. No more pain. Why do we mourn so?”
“We mourn because we miss,” I texted with simplicity. “For our loved ones in heaven ‘all is well’ right away. When we grieve in step with God, ‘all is well’ with us eventually, not immediately. In the meantime, we mourn, we miss, we marinate in ‘all will be well,’ just not today. Has this been your experience with grief?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I know we are sad for us. I still miss my dad so much. But I know he is great and I treasure my memories and my time with him. Our stillborn infant who died I never got to know – so I look forward to seeing him too. I have the faith of a child – so I can easily not be immobilized because I believe God’s promises and know that heaven is better than earth.”
“When we trust without doubt that heaven is better than Hawaii, we are freed to live with gratitude for our fleeting time on earth, knowing that our joy only gets bigger, deeper, wider,” I continued our string of early morning texts. “I love our friendship because we both live at peace, knowing intimately the God who is good, great, gracious beyond measure. Love to you, my special, special friend.”
“You too!” said her final text. “I am grateful for your wisdom and gifts of empathy and laughter.”
“The feeling is mutual,” I concluded. “God is wise to knit us together.”
Now we do not want you to be uninformed, believers, about those who are asleep [in death], so that you will not grieve [for them] as the others do who have no hope [beyond this present life]. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again [as in fact He did], even so God [in this same way—by raising them from the dead] will bring with Him those [believers] who have fallen asleep in Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, AMP).
…Sue…
