Blessed are those who mourn

Today I attended a Celebration of Life service for a dear friend’s mother who passed away after her second fight against cancer. Her faith was strong and her time had come. Being a Christian and truly understanding the gospel gives so much hope during these times of sadness and suffering. The Bible is rich in providing this hope. As much as I hate to pull out just a few verses, because let’s be honest, the whole Bible is amazing, here are a few that were running through my head this morning:

• ·        For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels or rulers, not things present nor things to come, nor power, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39
•          “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 15:55-57
• ·         Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4

I’m currently working on memorizing the beatitudes (see above, that was from memory, yay!). Our Sunday School teacher encourages us to memorize scripture, and for that I am grateful. Memorization is difficult for me, with my lasting chemo brain and tamoxifen that I swear makes me slightly stupid. But it is proving to be wonderful to have this reservoir of scripture in my mind.  

And so, this afternoon, I’ll work on some more memorizing. I’m enjoying the beautiful day, despite my cat bringing me a dead chipmunk and Troy isn’t home to deal with it (I covered it with a bucket, poor little evil destructive critter that it was). And, most of all, I will praise God for my friend’s mom, her life well-lived, and the promise of eternity.