Sometimes it’s the place.
- Place: Maple Hill Cemetery
The February afternoon is cool with a breeze. Sunny with clouds in the distance. Pregnant in sorrow with birth pangs of joy.
Nothing brings a seriousness like a graveyard. It’s the ethereal meeting place between the living and the dead. Between believers and doubters. Between hope and despair.
Sometimes it’s the reason.
- Reason: Mrs. Georgine’s funeral
We’re here to call upon the Lord, sing songs of victory. We long to fill the hole. To look death in the face and redeem the loss. To picture the rising.
“I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain”
“…Then I’ll bow down
Lay my crown
At His wounded feet”
Sometimes it’s the people.
- People: Believers I love, who I believe love me
Mostly familiar faces hover round. Minus one, unless you count a photograph from a time I never knew.
I identify every voice in song beside me, behind, in front. Singing clear and steady of a common Love: “I will always sing your praise / Here on earth and ever after / For You’ve shown me heaven’s my true home / When it’s all been said and done / You’re my life when life is gone.”
I catch the eye of soul-friends. We’re one in love with Him. Confident our rich history together will culminate in a far more glorious future. I anticipate the release.
Sometimes, it’s one thing.
That day, it was three things.
Always, it’s God.
Why am I in this place for this reason with these people?
Only God knows.
I know to give thanks.
Look around you.
Where are you right now?
For what reason?
With who?
Is it Lord-ordained? Love-ordained?
For
this place,
this reason,
these people,
can you give thanks, too?
Lord,
Your will come.
Here...because of Love...through us.
I continue to count...
# 17....22
~ good goose bumps in cemetery; singing praise over living & dead
~ friends who touch with and without hands
~ incoming kleenex; cough drops for sore throats
~ a marriage of 60 years til death did they part
# 23....27
~ daughter who cleans kitchen without being asked; antihistamine
~ loud birdsongs in roofs of trees; wind harmonizing through limbs
~ Granddad’s hand-me-down grasshopper 
# 28....30
~ Clock still counting minutes at 1:52 a.m.
~ God’s company at all hours
~ a husband sleeping soundly no matter the light I’m reading by
* * *
What gifts are you seeing in this place & time?
3 comments:
Seems we walk parallel paths too often...said goodbye (for now) to a dear pastor from our past this week. Thanking God with you for the church family that surrounds and supports, and for, above all, the reality of eternal life.
Before I went to my first funeral, I thought I would dread them. But for believers, it can be such a blessed time amidst the sorrow. "It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart." Ecc 7:2.
Lisa, I'm loving this 'new way' of looking at the world. It has really helped me in the midst of a time when I am way outside of my comfort zone. I've been praying for it to end and yet ...this may be a gift.
Thank you for stopping by and offering encouragement. I am sorry to read of your friend's death but thankful that she was a believer. She is now with Jesus. What a comfort that is.
Blessings and love,
Debbie
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