A Birth and a Death

Monday and Tuesday, I attended the wake and the funeral for my friend's husband, who died so suddenly.  Thank you, all who prayed for her and her children--their names are Caroline, Savannah and Noah, if you want to add them to your prayer lists for awhile. 

Roy's death was just so devastating, on many levels.  Besides the grief, there are so many practical, logistical impacts on their lives.  Caroline was enveloped by prayer and by God's own supernatural peace at both events, but she has many difficult decisions and grief-filled days ahead of her.  As the Lord brings her to mind, please pray.

During the funeral, as I was praying for Caroline and the children, I remembered that my friend Mrs. A.--she and her husband are the ones who started Light of Christ and somehow got us to consider becoming part of it!--was in labor, since she was being induced that same morning.  It was strange to pray for these two women simultaneously--both suffering in such different ways.  I thought of the saying, "a birth and a death," which many older folks repeated over and over at my grandfather's wake and funeral years ago, when my sister-in-law was great with child and I had just learned I was expecting Bantam11.  I guess it's a way of saying that God continues to give the gift of life, even when death seems to overshadow everything.  A long-awaited daughter (after 5 boys) did enter this world safely yesterday, and I rejoice with the A's at the same time as I grieve with Caroline.

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 

Romans 12:15

For none of us liveth to himself,
and no man dieth to himself.
For if we live, we live unto the Lord.
and if we die, we die unto the Lord.
Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

Romans 14:7-9