Life

This side of Heaven, life can be painful.  We do experience joy here, too, of course, but there is sadness and grief that you just can't escape if you live this life loving, well, anyone.  This weekend is a perfect example of that.  We head to the farm this weekend to be with our family as we scatter my mother-in-law's ashes.  And it's where we need to be; to be grieving and healing with our family.  But we have dear friends who just lost their mother this week, and the funeral is this morning, and I want to be there, holding their hands and lifting them up, too. 

Today is also the anniversary of the birth and death of Erin, who was born to some of our close friends from church last year.  And tomorrow, by c-section, they will deliver daughter number 4.  We weren't able to be with them in the hospital last year, because we were helping my brother-in-law celebrate his promotion to Major.  And this year, we'll be at the farm.  I know they understand, but we want to be there for them, too.  It's a joyful time to be greeting their daughter, but it's a time of remembrance and mourning, too.

Oh, Jesus, my heart aches for all of it.

It's just hard, this life.  Today, as I pray for all of my dear friends, I'm also praising God for the hope of Heaven.  I praise God that He walks with us through this life, of course, but the hope of Heaven...being completely at home, at peace, exactly where I was created to be....the thought of it is sometimes overwhelming in a good way. 
 
"Death opens a door out of a little, dark room (that's all the life we have known before it) into a great, real place where the true sun shines and we shall meet."  C.S. Lewis