Until We See You Again
My family, along with a bunch of friends, said our “until we see you agains” to my Aunt Diane today. It was much too soon for us, but God knows much more about timing than we ever will and His ways are higher than our ways. It’s crazy how so much can change in a week, though. Lives have been altered beyond comprehension. My heart is torn tonight, not just because of my own loss, but mainly because of other family members that are just beginning their difficult grieving process, one that will be lifelong in one way or another.
There’s been so much taken away from our family this week, but I think about how there’s so much that even death can’t take away. And for that, I am thankful to God. I’m thankful that memories and love cannot be stolen. More of my childhood has surfaced than I imagined would this week, and I am glad for all my family that have loved me and helped me form good, and sometimes crazy, childhood memories. I’m thankful that this life and this body’s death are only temporary. I’m thankful that God gives us the opportunity to choose Him, and that, when we do, He promises that the tears, pain, loss, and grief will be taken away when it is our time to join all the others in Heaven.
So, what do we do with our loss now? Everybody deals with it differently. We find a new purpose, perhaps. We pass the love that we received from our loved one on to others. We eventually find that it’s okay to laugh again because our loved one loved to laugh. And, boy, did Diane love to laugh! We worship God through our pain and we feel closer to God knowing that our loved ones are with Him right now. (What an awesome thought that is!) We may find that the only way to learn to live without our loved one is to pour our lives into others.
So, as I once read on Facebook, “Pass around kindness like confetti.” It will spread farther than you ever imagined and you’ll find evidence of it long after it was first introduced. Whether we’re here for 3, 33, or 99 years, it’s only a blink of an eye in all of eternity to choose Him, love Him, and lead others to Him.
