Good morning…
Last Sunday was All Saints’ Day, and, in every worship service at Northside Church, we celebrated the souls of loved ones in our congregation who died in the past year. A bell was rung in their honor and family and friends stood for a moment of remembrance.
Last year on All Saints’ Day, the soul of Audrey DeShetler was honored. Audrey went to heaven just before her 20th birthday after a fifteen year journey with neuroblastoma. Our church family loved Audrey and her family really well for all those years, and we continue to cherish the gifts inspired by Audrey’s life.
Ben, Audrey’s dad, wrote a Facebook post after attending last week’s All Saints’ service. In part, Ben wrote:
“I find comfort in the thought that she (Audrey) is finally home. No more treatments. No more pain. No more suffering. Just the fullness of God’s love, the way it was always meant to be. I think of her as someone who has gone ahead of us. Someone who has crossed into a place we cannot yet see, but where we trust we will one day be reunited.
Perhaps that’s part of what All Saints’ Day is meant to remind us. That the people we love are never simply reduced to memories. Their lives continue to shape ours. Their faith can still lead us even after death. Their love remains woven into the fabric of who we are. And through Christ, death does not get the final word.”
Ben’s words blend so beautifully with wisdom we read in class last week from page 74 of Waking Up to This Day by Paula D’Arcy. In processed the grief of losing her husband and young daughter, Paula shared these words:
“Love asked me to rebuild my life. It asked me to learn that letting go is not forgetting. Relationships don’t end at death – they shift. They enter the heart and learn a new language. Love asked me to give up my insistence on the old language and the old way of knowing in order to embrace a larger knowledge. Love asked me to believe that healing was possible.”
All of us have lost loved ones along life’s way. What an empowering truth: “Relationships don’t end at death – they shift. Our love relationships enter the heart and learn a new language.”
Love asks us to rebuild our life.
Love asks us to learn that letting go is not forgetting.
Love asks us to give up the old way of knowing in order to embrace a larger knowledge.
Love asks us to believe that healing is possible.
Love asks, how will we respond?
Dear friends, keep building on the foundation of your most holy faith, as the Holy Spirit helps you to pray. And keep in step with God’s love, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to show how kind he is by giving you eternal life (Jude 1:20-21, CEV).
…Sue…
P.S. Tonight in the Northside Church chapel, we will harness our own power to heal and rebuild after loss. From 6:30 to 8:00 pm, we will be guided by Susan Patterson, founder of Gifts from the End. Through a simple letter-writing exercise, Susan will help us to tap into our shifting relationship with loved ones who have died and are now actively present in our hearts.
Please join us and bring a friend. We will all be grateful for the uplifting experience.
