Another has passed before us. A pilar, a fixed point of which we did cling. She was a rallying point, a matriarch, a place were we did life with one another.

She has passed through the door which we are not yet meant to follow. Yet we all must pass through the threshold one day. It is this parting which breaks us. It is a goodbye that causes us to grieve. You do not grieve what you did not love in your heart, and there is much love in us for her.

And yet we do not grieve as the world does. For the world has no hope of what is to come, for what is beyond the veil. For the believer our hope is two fold.

First we know that we enter into God’s house. Into the loving arms of our savior we commit our spirit. Yet even that is not where our hope ends. We are promised new resurrection bodies like Christ. Body’s that are physical, eat, walk, and yet are free of all suffering.

I count her passing as a prayer answered, for her suffering is at an end. We will miss her for the rest of our lives here, but the time of our suffering is short, and the time of our mourning is shorter still. It is good to mourn, for even Christ mourned for his friend who he knew would be restored before the end of that same hour. But we should not let our mourning swallow us up, for we are still found with hope.

I love you Grandma, and I miss you greatly. Even so our time here is numbered, but our days in glory are without end. I will see you again, I just am needed here a little longer.

May God’s love and grace sustain us all. It is enough.