Losing a Loved One

I think losing a loved one is a little like child-birth. God helps you forget the pain of the last one so you're able to handle the next one. Since June, 2005, I've lost 4 people very close to me. My husband, my best friend, my mother-in-law, and today, my Mother, Mary Redding. She passed at 9:10am. Quietly, with no fuss or fan-fare, her body just stopped breathing. She was a very strong woman who walked closely with God. Watching over her this morning, I felt like her spirit, her soul, had already gone, having left her body sometime yesterday. I believe those of us left behind are often just caretakers of an empty husk. It's hard, but believing she was already walking with Jesus, talking, laughing, hugging my dad and my brother, Shelton, made it easier to bear the pain. Faith "is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1) I'm extremely grateful my mother raised me not only as her child, but as a child of God. One day, I'll see her and all my other loved ones again. Thank you, Mother.