When it Rains in April

I think April is one of the most beautiful months of the year but there sure is a lot of rain! The rain softens the earth for the flowers to grow. On this particular week in April my heart is softened because it is the anniversary of the death of three people who were very dear to me. Just as the rainy days of April make me look forward to the coming flowers, the tenderness that comes with grief makes my spirit look with anticipation to the time when the perishable body will put on imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality.

Today at church I was surprised to hear a hymn that I had never sung before and yet I was very familiar with. The first words of the song are etched in marble on a bench that in the evening faces the Sunset. Three years ago this week Pa Pa and I sat where the bench is now and watched as the Sun sank behind the mountains. We talked about eternity because six days earlier his wife of over sixty years had died. The next day he joined her in eternity. The bench is engraved with these words, "For all the saints who from their labors rest."

The last verse of that song reminds me of that last night I spent talking with Pa Pa, "The golden evening brightens in the west; soon, soon, to faithful warriors cometh rest. The sweet calm of Paradise is the best." That night we spent together there was a quiet hush and we watched as two butterflies were dancing in the evening light.

The loss of Ma Belle had brought grief, the sudden unexpected death of Pa Pa a week later was crushing. I went to find solace the night he died in the beauty of nature. I went to place he and I had watched the Sunset the night before. As the Sun sank bathing the night sky with color once again I saw two butterflies. I saw the colors of the setting Sun reproduced on the wings of the butterfly and hope whispered in my heart, "Death is swallowed up in victory."