Grief has been too present in my extended family this past year, leaving grieving parents and grieving young adult children.   One so sudden and unexpected, the other the discouraging too fast journey of cancer.   One a small child, the other in mid life . . .  both taken too soon.  

I’ve walked with others when grief comes suddenly . . .  An accident that crushed a life,  a massive heart attack, or  the  young adult who goes to bed, but fails to wake up.   I’ve been schooled in the fragility of life.   Today, I find comfort in the everlasting arms of God’s compassion and love.   I think of the day when death will be no more and the only tears shed, will be those of joy.  

“God  will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’

And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’  Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.” Revelation 21:4-7

Dana Ferguson, says of these words, “They tell us that there will be a new day when we live face to face with God . All that has hindered, hurt, and hampered us will be gone . What will be left is a life with God, filled with relationships of joy and strength with God’s people.”  Dana Ferguson, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, Fifth Sunday of Easter