Many of you have expressed to me and my family over the past few days that you knew that my granddad passed away on Sunday night. Thank you so much for your texts, calls and prayers. I have been blown away by the way we have been loved.
I don't have a post to share with you here, but I want to share with you something I wrote Monday morning. I wrote once a few hours after he died at 2 am and then again when I woke up after three and a half hours of sleep. This excerpt is from the entry I made after a short night of sleep, a tired body, but a full spirit.
He loves me. This I know.
Last night (this morning) I wrote about where I was to find joy here. Now, in the still of the morning, with the birds who know only the freedom of their flight chirping, it sets into my soul. There is joy here simply because Jesus walks with me here. Jesus knows this pain of loss. There is joy simply because he sits on this white couch with me and takes my hand and says, "Keep going. I am here. I will walk with you."
This is joy. This is amazing grace. That I would invite the Rabbi into my house and all he wants is for me to sit at his feet. What sweet love that the God that formed me and set me apart delights in me and in my sorrows. There is joy here because we know that when death pangs our hearts, he is still so good and he is still here and he is still Jesus.
"There may be pain in the night, but JOY comes in the morning." (Ps. 30:5b)
Behold, the Lamb has come.
Thank you for loving us and walking with us. We count the ways that Jesus loves us, and we count the joys he bestows in our lives and you are one of them.
We love you because he loved us first. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
