Bear Ye One Another's Burdens...

  
 This week has probably been one of the most difficult weeks of a lifetime for a friend of mine. She is delivering the eulogy today at her brother's funeral. It is the final act of love that she will be able to offer him, and I am confident that she will be an agent of God's grace, mercy, compassion and love. This past week my friend's brother committed suicide as did his teenage son six years ago. He leaves behind a wife of one year and a daughter who is the twin of the teenage son who killed himself.  Contemplating these two suicides in one family is beyond the scope of human understanding, and forces me to confront again and affirm my belief in a shepherd who never abandons His sheep. Over and over again, I have said the words of John out loud as I have prayed for my friend and her niece and sister-in-law: "All that the Father has given me are mine...and no one can snatch them out of my hand."  My friend and her brother shared a unique and poignant life-time bond that was borne out of the survival of a most difficult childhood. Her brother took the role of protector, and she in turn kept him close and pursued him and loved him well even though 2000 miles separated their adult lives.

 I have read my friend's eulogy, and her words left me weeping. In all likelihood she is speaking this very moment as I write these words. Even as I type I am offering up my prayer for strength and for the peace that passeth all understanding to encompass her soul. I pray that the Lord will both heal her wounds and use her in her time of deep sorrowing to be a comfort to others. It is said that the Lord does not waste our sorrows, that in His providence He uses our grief to draw others who need the touch of comfort that we ourselves have received. My friend's grief is great, but so is her faith. I am thankful for her today, and for the fact that despite the suffering and fiery attacks of the enemy that she has faced her in her lifetime, she has been given the grace and the strength to stand. She is a witness to the fact that the Lord is her strength and her shield. I see in her a woman of great courage whose soul beauty has been forged in the fires of pain and sorrow. And yet she manages to laugh in the face of adversity, comfort others in their hour of need, and find joy in the small and great blessings of life. Today I am praying for the Lord to let me and all others who know her to shoulder her burden and to stand before the throne of grace and mercy on her behalf....Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ...and what is the law of Christ? To love the Lord our God with all our heart, strength, mind and soul, and to love others before ourselves. I love you, sweet friend.