Loss of Loved Ones #5

I received a sweet email mail this morning from a young lady who recently lost her father. He was only 54 years old. She had such kind words about her father as well as stating that they would one day spend eternity together. She actually was giving me encouragement as to what I was going to write today.

As you know my last lesson was that HOPE OF SEEING OUR LOVED ONE AGAIN is the comforting of all truths when we deal with the death of a Christian.

The second truth that I had written to share with you today was that the second most comforting item is MEMORIES. There was an old TV show that had for it’s theme song “Thanks for the memories”.

Paul writes Philippians  1:3 “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.” My grandfather also died in his 50s and since he was the one I lived with most of the time as a child/teenager it was a staggering loss for a 14 year old boy. But as I moved on it was always those great memories of milking cows with him as well as baling hay, etc.

From time-to-time I walk the property around 2am and put my hands on the many dorms and after praying I try to think  of the boys and girls who passed through those dorms as they were raised at Casa and have moved on now as adults. The memories could fill reams of notebooks. Some memories are negative but I have chosen to remember the fun times, the happy times, the special times and if possible I try to remember what they were like as little girls.

Another email asked me if working at Casa has been a form of therapy to deal with the deaths of our 3 children. He made me think and the answer is yes. You can only look back at the good and press forward looking HOPEFULLY towards what God has in store for us and those who went before us and those who will come behind.

Memories and Hope are the first ways we can handle loss but stayed tuned because there is more!