Life Cycle

I wrote a blog a couple years ago... I could probably write the same one word for word today... "Life Hidden in a Tent"... the particulars match almost exactly. A friend of the family for many Years (in fact since I was a baby), Bud Elford passed away a couple of days ago... the next day (yesterday) a friend gave birth to her first daughter, today another friend of the family, Lorraine Scott passed away...

it reminded me so much of 2 years ago that I thought I would post an excerpt from that blog as kind of a reminder of what God was teaching me then...

"A couple of days ago a friend from church had this lovely little baby girl, early... she'd come for a visit and we'd been talking to her ealier in the day, and that evening she delivered their daughter. What just amazes me every time is how the space of a day changes your life so drastically. Just that day, a man we have known since I was a baby passed away, his funeral was today. His life will never be the same. In a good way :D

One life, I have just met, she was hidden from view; although no less alive the day before birth than the day after. The other one has since left the tent/body he was dwelling in and is now more alive than he had been while here, although I can no longer see him he is in fact more alive today than he was the day before.Fascinating don't you think.At the funeral today, the pastor was talking about our body being a tent, it is imperfect, and it is only temporary. That instilled in me so much hope. I started thinking about all this mess with whatever is causing me pain - that obviously isn't my appendix! And I thought about all those little aches and pains you can feel (...after bowling, which we did last night) - and then about how quickly a body heals and how much it can stand up against. I got really excited (in this funeral, hahaha) to think that if this is the temporary body, the shelter not built to last. That although knit together by God in the womb, is not anything close to what he has been preparing for me in heaven. Well that's just incredible don't you think. Also, just as I was thinking about writing this blog, that verse came to mind (that I haven't looked up, and don't know off the top of my head where it is). Our life is hidden with Christ in God!! It reminded me how this baby was hidden. Her life was there but hidden... and the real living begins outside the womb. Right now my life is hidden with Christ in God. I am living, definitely - but this life compared to the one lived in heaven when I shed this "tent" (maybe almost like a womb)is not really living..."

That is what I need to remember today, as we say goodbye to these friends (for a time)... Their real living has just begun! What a comfort when the pain of missing loved ones threatens to close in. Someday we'll be reunited with those that went before us and enjoy a life more abundant that one could ever dream.