Someone died. I saw the news this morning when I looked on Facebook. I read the nice little write up - a fine Christian, knew Jesus was her Savior. Good stuff. Nice paragraph, focused upon Jesus. And then, it ended by telling me when the "celebration of life" would be.
...
Now, I didn't know this person very well - she wasn't someone very close to me, but I've known plenty who are near and dear to me who have died, indeed died in the faith. And you know what? When they died - I mourned.
When friends, when family dies -- it's time for a funeral. It's time to mourn. That's okay.
I say this being Irish - I love a good wake - the lasting memory I actually have of my Grandma Nordgren's funeral isn't the service, it's my grandpa and uncles laughing at the fact that I was eating my third giant roast beef sandwich at the catered dinner afterwards.
But you know what. It was a funeral. And while I'm all for laughing and enjoying and remembering -- yeah, we were there that day because my grandpa was burying his second wife who was only 42, my aunt Jeri was only 13 and she was burying her mom.
It's okay to mourn. It's okay to sorrow. Even for Christians - even for we who know that there will be restoration - even we who look forward to the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.
Because while the departed might be doing much better - we aren't. We have suffered a loss... and we don't need to pretend otherwise.
Mourning is not a four letter word. There is a time for it -- Christians mourn, but we do not mourn as those with no hope.
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