by Stacey | Sep 1, 2016 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
This week a good friend transitioned from the perishable to the imperishable. My youngest prayed that she would: “have a great first day with Jesus.” I know she did.
As I mourn her death, this excerpt, adapted from Unexpected Love, reminds me that despite how I feel, this good-bye is not forever..
Good-bye arrives too soon and it tempts me to say it wasn’t enough. I’ll never be ready. I’ll never be ready to let go, but I must because God sheathed immortal souls in temporal flesh and earthen vessels.
He gives us just enough.
We have just enough time to embrace our Creator. We have just enough opportunity to glorify him. We have just enough love. We have just enough laughter. We have just enough.
She inhaled the temporary and exhaled eternity. She is with her Lord.
Now, we must remember the Lord. He is the perfect Father who never leaves. He will guide us, counsel us, and love us until all our written days transpire. He is the only constant in this changing world. Through good and bad, hard and easy, joys and sorrows, we must turn to him and believe.
We have just enough time to believe that he is more than enough for all time.
Yes, I grieve her death. But I also celebrate her arrival in the place where she now shares in the resurrection of Jesus. This truth means that all who believe in Jesus and fully surrender to him will one day join her in worshiping our King for eternity. Because of that truth, this isn’t good-bye; it’s until then.
Until then, my sweet friend, I will miss you.
by Stacey | Apr 30, 2015 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
We are visitors, I know. But somehow I never considered you going on ahead. I never considered what it would be like to walk this earth without you. To not hear your voice. Not see your smile. Not feel your touch.
We lived in a way that presumed upon tomorrow, but now we have only yesterday. What would I say or do if we had another day? Would I recognize it as a treasure, or would I fritter it away chasing things that cannot satisfy? Would I know what really matters?
Yesterday is gone, and I mourn for today, but not like someone without hope because tomorrow is coming. A thousand tomorrows. A thousand tomorrows joining you in singing out love to our great and mighty God in the place where tears are no more. The illusion lies and claims our good-bye is forever, but really, you are just a breath away. A heartbeat. And when I inhale eternity, I will see you again, and join in the never-ending praise of our Creator.
So I won’t say good-bye, I say, until then.
by Stacey | Jan 30, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
She blinked.
A fluttering half-second when she inhaled the temporary and exhaled eternity. Ushered away from the presence of those she could never imagine leaving and into the presence of the only One who never leaves. And she finally lives, like she has never lived before.
She is home.
Oh, to lift a corner of the veil and witness her triumphant welcome into eternity! The indescribable love, laughter and joy as mortality puts on immortality.
And we blink.
Blink back tears, grief, a longing for what this world cannot provide.
Pain, although sharp and deep, is a sweet reminder that the earth is not our home. One day, if we trust in Jesus, we will open our eyes in the place where victory swallows death and the sting of the grave is no more.
And those who have gone before will usher us in. We will meet our Saviour and we will know.
We. Are. Home.
