From Death to Life

I am once again faced with the need to process all the life and death around me. With the loss of my dear friend's father, death becomes real again, and yet as she will deliver her first child the day after burying her father, life is real too. A day doesn't pass when my email inbox is filled with prayer requests from various groups asking for prayers for a young mother with brain cancer, a little boy diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a priest undergoing heart surgery, a childhood classmate who died, or a toddler in a near drowning incident...and all in my circles of friends and acquaintances. It is hard not to stay up late wondering just what this whole life, suffering and death is all about.

But I think our children, raised in the Faith, give us the best answer. In Mary Clare's simple questions and encouragement that "it's okay, he's happy in Heaven, he's with Mary Clare R., Agnes, and Augustine" make me so thankful to have a God who speaks to us through others, especially our own children. We all laid down together tonight and remembered some stories about Mr. Grant. And I thought about the beautiful example of a holy marriage and loving family example that Grant and Clara have taught me. Later, as I was whining to Steven about my eczema-attacked fingers and lack of needed sleep this week, little Mary Clare came from the bathroom with my tub of lotion. Such sweet relief to my hands and my heart!

Tomorrow, God-willing, we will be graced with a much-desired trip to the beach with my aunt, my visiting cousin and her two young daughters. I think it will be just what I need in the midst of this busy and emotional week (I've also just started a tutoring job). But my heart is with my friend and her family this week and I pray that the example of Mr. Grant's life will be an encouragement to me, to all the husbands and young men he encountered, and to all those close to them. May his soul rest in peace, and may God grant us the faith and the hope that through suffering we are united with Christ, and through death, we are united with him forever.