Saying Goodbye

Today I go to a funeral of a friend who just lost her mother. It brings back so much emotion and pain. How quickly that sting of death returns to my soul. I pray with her and quietly listen. You can't explain a death of loosing a parent, a single parent who raised you on their own, unless you've experienced it. My heart bleeds for her probably because mine is still bleeding. I have two years under my belt since my Dad passed. The fresh pain she is experiencing is terrible. Saying all this, the intimacy and love that my Heavenly Father bestowed upon me I would have never felt if I never went through this long, deep valley. When you feel abandoned and alone He promises to hold you with His right hand. He comes to those with a broken heart. I have never felt anything like that in all my life. I can truly say I have felt Him breathing on me. Being called aside by Christ is a blessing in disguise. I still struggle with this but I feel His firm grip of assurance. Now, the hard part for me, and I am sure my friend, will be finding your way back to "normal". Life, as I knew it, changed in a blink of an eye. Death brings insecurity, loneliness, vulnerability. It is finding your strength in Him and trusting Him like never before (I am still working on this). This was in my devotion today. - In order to grow in grace, we must be much alone. It is not in society that the soul grows most vigorously. In one single quiet hour of prayer it will often make more progress than in days of company with others. It is in the desert that the dew falls freshest and the air is purest. - Andrew Bonar - My friend, I pray the Lord will shower you with Himself, right at this moment. Strength to say goodbye.