Her grandson sat beside her, weeping. Her voice was weak, but her words were strong. She was dying, and she was saying goodbye. She told him he didn't have to hold back the tears; it was okay for him to cry. She gently explained that her body was worn out and the time had come for her to die. Then she turned to me and said goodbye.
As I sat there, the words of Ecclesiastes 3 flooded my mind. "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die...a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn..." Yesterday, we got the call that Anne had died, and it was time to weep and time to mourn.
The sorrow is real, the grief is real, and yet we don't grieve like those who have no hope. When I think about the last time I saw Anne, and her parting words to me knowing this would probably be our last meeting here on earth I also think about how Jesus prepared His disciples for His death. "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also..." (John 14 1-3)
Last year I taught a Bible Study on Heaven. Anne was in the class. We talked about the mystery and the victory of what God has prepared for us. We talked about how the perishable body must put on the imperishable, and how this mortal body must put on immortality. Anne is the first of the class to graduate. She now knows the victory that is hers in our Lord Jesus Christ. For Anne,"Death is swallowed up in victory."
I stand on this side of eternity peering through a veil of tears. I see dimly but I believe that Anne now beholds her Savior face to face.
Lord Jesus, You are the Resurrection and the Life yet you stood at Lazarus' tomb and wept. Thank you that your plans for us go beyond the grave.
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