"Sometimes you have to sit with the pain." That's a paraphrase from my friend Abigail. We spoke the other day on the occasion of a passing of a mutual friend, Nina Wells Johnson. When someone you love dies, there is a hole in your life, and nothing else will ever exactly fill that hole again. There is pain when that hole forms, and there is nothing you can do to prevent it from happening, you just have to live through it. With time, the pain lessens and life moves on. But not today.
Today, Jeff and I attended Nina's funeral along with a myriad of friends and family.
It was a beautiful celebration of her life. People packed the church to overflowing. Nina's husband Tim is a police officer. Tim's brothers and sisters in blue came to support him. They all gave up their seats and stood at the back of the sanctuary throughout the entire service so that others would have a place to sit.
People gave testimonies of how Nina touched their lives, we watched two different slideshow presentations with pictures throughout her life, and we heard a tribute to Nina from her husband read by a realtive of her husband's family. It was bittersweet.
We also sang worship choruses. Pastor Lou Curcio gave a wonderful sermon on how one could have a relationship with Jesus just as Nina had. He spoke of a relationtional God, one who desires to reconcile us to himself, who died so that we could live with him in eternity.
Mercifully, God took Nina home to be with Himself and her pain is over. Ours is beginning and will last awhile, but God is with us and He will help us all overcome the pain. For now, we will grieve her loss and celebrate her homegoing.
Our prayers are with the Wells and Johnson families.
A member of our small group passed away right before Christmas. I imagine him saying "This is great! I'm with GOD!" It's such a blessing to be able to celebrate a person's life, knowing they're in a far better place. May many people be blessed by the pastor's sermon at Nina's funeral!
ReplyDeleteWow! God took a few home for the holidays. My husband's Aunt also passed on Dec 29th, she had diabetes and was on kidney dialyasis (?) Well at least we know that they are without pain and in a much better place than us.
ReplyDeleteKatrina