Lesson Of Loss

I attended the funeral of Edna Gampp this week, a sister in christ, and have given some thought to the lovely words, music and words of sympathy given during this service. I will always remember Edna's smile, her pleasant personality and kind words.

I want to share the following conversation with you that I have read many times in the past:

Thank you, God, for the wonderful lesson of loss.
The arms of my friends console me, the love of my family surrounds me. The goodness and kindness of my neighbors sustain me like a staff.
Though I am prostrate with grief I am supported, as by a great shining column that rises up within me. I can lift up my head, I can walk upright. I can even smile.
For their sympathy is also like a lovely pool in which I see glimpses of goodness and beauty never revealed before. In it my agony is smoothed, the ache of my heart becomes bearable and will, I know, one day heal.

Surely if human beings can surround and help and support each other in such times of sorrow, then your love, oh God, must be even more great.
I feel your kind hand upon me through the touch of theirs. I feel your promises fulfilled.
I see my dear one fresh and new and whole, free of pain and problems, spared of all distress. I see that dear one lifted up into some new state so joyful and free and ongoing that excitement fills me.
I sense that blessed presence saying, "It is true! It really is. Believe this, oh believe this and don't grieve."
I am enriched by this loss. My faith is renewed. I am a better person for it.
God of our creation, God of our ongoing, thank you for this wonderful lesson of loss.

Remembering the family in prayer and love.