AND JUST LIKE THAT

 

Today my husband and I went to a funeral of a dear friends wife who had been declining for a while. In fact my husband held the funeral for our friend. The afternoon before, we met with most of the close family to hear their stories of their wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. It was a sweet time of laughter, tears and grief expressing how giving she was.

One story that will stay with us forever came from her husband. We had just visited them about two weeks before, she was weak but was sitting on the couch with her husband as he teased her. But, this story came to be the night she died. By this time, she is bedridden and not talking but Hospice assured the family the hearing is the last thing to go, so she could hear.

As the husband lay in bed with her, the verses in Psalm 23 came to his mind and he begin to recite it. After he finished, he said, now hon, save a place for me in heaven.

AND JUST LIKE THAT, she closed her eyes and gave up her worn-out dress of flesh and her soul went to be with Jesus, leaving behind the ragged old body that housed it for many years.

It's hard not to cry when others are crying especially when a man cries. My husband and I did our best to assure them grieving is good; it means someone was loved enough to be missed. We are in good company when we cry for Jesus cried, He grieved, when He heard His friend Lazarus died. Tears can be such a comfort when the words leave us. We watched tons of comforters pour into the funeral home to love on those who had lost a loved one.

It was a good day. The bible says it's better to go to the house of mourning then a house of eats. My husband was able to give the sweet gospel to a room full of people needing comfort and HOPE. That husband, those adult children and grandchildren will never hug Pat physically again for she will not return to earth. But, oh but someday, they can have hope they will see her again. All it takes is belief in Jesus as the only way to heaven. It was a good day.

I pray for those who could read this, that when their time comes and it will, just like that. No body knows the second we will draw our last breath and our soul will separate from our body and journey to eternity. For our friend Pat, she had accepted the sacrifice of Jesus death on the cross for her and she is now with Him. Without Christ there is no hope. I hate typing those last five words, but truth is truth. If you are interested in knowing more, you can write me, and I will gladly share how you can have that hope too.