Hope

I realized today how incredibly grateful I am for the hope we have in Christ. Today I went to my great uncle's funeral. He had cancer but was expected to live for awhile longer. Evidentally last Sabbath he had a heart attack and died later that day. I honestly have to say that I didn't know the man, had only seen him acouple times. But he is my grandmother's brother. She has 4 siblings and he was the first to go. It is very remarkable to get to the age of 85 and have all your siblings alive to this point. I hadn't been to a funeral in years. And I hadn't been to a viewing since I was probably 5 years old. I have been very sheltered from death. To this day I have yet to lose anyone close to me, even a pet. My cats are 14 years old. Our dog died last year but I wasn't too attatched to him and didn't see him when he died. I am very grateful that I haven't felt the pain of such a lose. Today I saw those who were experiencing that lose.
Last night we went to the viewing and to be honest I was wary of seeing my great uncle- Judson. It seems weird but when I did see him, it almost didn't seem real, until I saw a little boy touch his hand. It never occurred for me to touch him. It seemed that as long as I didn't, there was a wall up in my mind. It is a bit hard to explain. After I saw that boy touch him I wanted to as well, to make it more real to me. But I couldn't, I wouldn't.
Today was the funeral. Judson's son sat in the front corner and cried much of the time. There is something that happens to me when I see people cry, especially men. It is so sad to me. My great aunt from California came in last night and so the funeral was the first time she was seeing her brother. I saw her come in and she made a bee-line for the casket. There was something in the manner that she went forward and then stopped at his side that just gripped my heart. I know they were close. I have only one sibling so I don't know the experience of several brothers or sisters but just the thought of coming to see my brother who has died, not having seen him in months...tears me up inside. I cannot comprehend. It was possibly one of the saddest moments I have ever seen: Her rushing to, then standing at his side. My grandfather was teared up during the service. My grandmother wasn't though. I have never seen my grandmother cry. I think it would frighten me.
Funerals are awful. The epitome of the curse on this earth, a seperation that the rest of the universe cannot understand. When the casket goes into that hole in the ground.......no more will anyone see that person. I am young....so perhaps perspectives change as time passes. But death is not something I expect at this point in life, it is not natural. I can see how one with no hope would go from a funeral service with the thoughts "what is the point in life? Everyone will just die."
But praise the Lord! There is hope for the taking. "There will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain." In the past year death seems to be creeping up on me: first a church member this past spring and now a distant family member. Hopefully these premonitions will not continue. But, forbit it if they do, there is a Savior. There is hope eternal. Seperation and endings are things which I don't like. I get broken up over silly things: I recall when I was around 8 years old my grandparents took my brother and I to the circus. We got there early in the morning to see all the trucks roll in and we stayed all day watching the huge tent go up, the animals let out and in the evening we attended. At the end of the day I was so distraught over it ending...I had been part of it and now it was over. That was over the circus....what about lives ending which I have been connected to? I cannot imagine. Someday I will have to face this. But I pray and trust that I will never have to face such things alone. Jesus experienced seperation which we can never fathom no matter how much pain we have to face. He is our comfort, our protection, and Savior.
"We have this hope which burns within our hearts...hope in the coming of the Lord" Oh what His returning will mean.....come Lord Jesus.

Rainbows around us

I saw one of the more spectacular things I have ever seen this evening. To set the stage I shall inform you that I live in a very hilly terrain: not mountains but many hills and valleys. I live more on a hill. And we have been having some pretty nice sunsets lately. ---------->

So this evening having returned from making some purchases I saw the sunset and grabbed my camera and took some very nice pictures. When I was satisfied I went to my room to putter around. Several minutes later I happened to pass by my father “Ladybug (as he calls me) did you see the rainbow?” Rainbow? I grab my camera again and rush outside to behold a spectacular sight……a rainbow was stretched across the sky- but what made it spectacular was that I could see both horizons where it originated (because I live on a hill) therefore it was a humungous arch. There are no words to describe what an impressive sight it was. I of course started snapping pictures. And of course I couldn’t fit the whole thing in the pictures because of the size. I shall attempt to share the pictures. I ran back in the field next to our yard to try to get a better shot. Then I ran like a lunatic to the car, barefooted and sped down the road to see if I could get a better shot- to no avail. 10 minutes later the rainbow was gone. And it started to rain. But I hope I always remember that rainbow.

The irony of this is that I almost missed that rainbow. I was outside faced the other direction looking at the sunset as the rainbow must have been starting to come into view. If my father hadn’t said something I would have totally missed that spectacular sight.

I wonder how often God is trying to get our attention....or we are so preoccupied with what we think is important that we completely miss the promises of God all around us? We might be faced the entirely wrong direction and have just to turn around, look around, and we would see a completely different picture?

(pictures aren't the best: it was starting to get dark and my flash made everything too pink for some reason :p)