The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. (Psalms 34:18)
My grandfather used to say that deaths in family’s came in threes. He said it was like a pattern and I’d see it as I got older. I never really noticed it until three years ago when first my only sister died. A few short months after that, my mother passed away and five months later, my father.
It seemed I could never quite finish grieving for one when the next passed.
As a pastoring family, my extended family asked us to do the services, so we really couldn’t grieve much until afterwards. There was the service to prepare and the people to contact. And after the services were over, and the family dinner after, there was life to attend to and somehow, my grieving at each death got put off until the following Sabbath day.
With each of them, I spent a Sabbath sitting alone, going through mental pictures of the last things we had said, the last time we had talked, the last moments we shared, and remembering earlier, better times. Some thoughts brought a smile, some a tear, but being a Christian meant that I knew I would, with no shadow of doubt, see them again, and just like when we were separated at times here on earth, we’d sit and spend time catching up what had gone on as soon as we were together again.
That’s one of the huge blessings in having the Lord as a member of my family. He has promised our grief will be short here and that we will see each other in the resurrection. We will finally have time to sit and visit and reminisce on the good times and the small problems here, and catch up, not only with our loved ones, but with Him.
Have you ever wondered what He’s been doing since He left and sent His Spirit to tend to us? It will make for an interesting visit.
I suspect many of the mansions are going to have front porches with swings on them…
“No two Christians will ever meet for the last time. ” – Unknown