Sunday Thoughts

Our Pastor taught on this at church this weekend. Our family goes to church on Saturday night and this teaching was so good, plus timely, for our church. You see, last week, we lost one of our members to an accident. It was totally unexpected and he was a young 40 with a wife and young children. I found out when I went to my Bible study. I came into the door and everyone was crying. He had passed away the night before and everyone was in shock. I still am. My heart has been heavy all week.

But God....He is in control. He knew this would happen before this man was even born. This passed through His hands before it happened. It is all part of a plan and we can be thankful that we know where this man is now - with Jesus. It is our hope - it is our assurance - it is what keeps us going forward. This is not our home - we look to our heavenly home and now my brother in Christ is there.

The funeral was yesterday and the feelings of loss were still quite raw last night. My Pastor made it through the teaching and his teaching was amazingly powerful. Then after the last worship song it happened. He broke down and sobbed. We were all standing and at first my family and I couldn't figure out who was crying and then we looked at our Pastor and it was him. You see, this man who died was his friend. He was one of the first members when this church was started. They had planned a hiking trip to the Grand Canyon in two weeks and now this man won't be going along. Yes, we all know that he is with Jesus, but it doesn't take away the grief or the missing him here on earth.

If you think of it, please pray for this man's family. For the wife and 3 children. For my Pastor and his wife who were such good friends. For my church that will miss him.

When these things happen, we grieve. However, there is also a small, shining happiness somewhere in the background of our heart because we know where he is. We know he is not really gone and that someday we will see him again. Only through Jesus do we have this hope and this hope is huge! The Lord gave us such a wonderful promise when He told us that this earth is not our home, that we will be with him. As believers, we know that we will see our loved ones again. God gives us promises that He will keep and, for me, this gives me joy beyond understanding even in the hard times.

Have a blessed Sunday!

God bless you - Julie