A good friend today has suffered a great loss. Her husband had his graduation day of life. It is all too soon, leaving behind his young wife and two young daughters. Today is a day that she and family mourns and those that love her family mourn as well.
The other day I overheard Joseph, my 5 yr old, asking his Daddy about bees. He said, "Bees are bad aren't they, Daddy, because they sting?!?" Joseph, as most kids, is terrified of anything that will cause him physical pain. Alex's reply was that "No, bees aren't bad. They make honey. You definitely don't want to get stung by one but they have good purposes as well." It made me reflect on the verse in Scripture, "Death, where is your sting?"
As Denise and those around her have learned today, death, like bees, has a definite sting. I suppose it is unfair to even compare death with a bee sting. As I try to put myself in Denise's shoes today, I visualize her leaving his bedside for the last time after standing vigilantly by for 40 plus days believing for a miracle. I try to understand what it must be like to get in your car and just go home. Like somehow today is like any other day, the routine so normal. It almost seems heartless for time and space not to bend or change to her circumstance. I can hardly stomach the thought of her crossing over the threshold of the door of her home, knowing that his feet would never cross there again. There is definite reason to mourn, to hurt and to feel ever so real the sting of death.
Just like bees, there is purpose in death. It will never be right in my mind as long as I'm mortal that someone suffers or leaves us too soon. Yet death in itself is actually relief from the painful mortal condition that we call life. Let's face it. Life is not a party. While it produces so many great joys and pleasures, it also just as often produces hardship and pain. This type of life ending is actually sweet relief when we believe that our afterlife is absent of the ripple effects of sin. As honey is in contrast to a bee's sting, so is death in contrast to mortal, limited, challenging "life".
I believe wholeheartedly in living life to its full-- every day with purpose, focusing on the joys and minimizing the sorrows. If it helps Denise at all, or anyone else who is acquainted with the pain of death, while it appears with our human eyes to be the final chapter, it is actually just the beginning of what was intended to sweeten our existence here on earth.
Denise, it takes faith. But I believe that one day you will see him again. That you will know him and he will know you. That when you next see him, you will never again experience separation. I believe he knows peace, love and joy to an ever greater degree than our human minds can contain today. And for that I envy him. Today, he knows Jesus fully. One day, thank goodness, we all will. But I know today, all the faith in heaven, doesn't make you miss him any less, nor mean that you won't miss him every day until you see him again. As God promises, He is near the broken-hearted, and may His Spirit be sweet like honey. Love you, sister!
