Ginger

On Wednesday morning I received the sad news that one of my dearest friend's sister had passed away unexpectedly(she is the one on the bottom right). She was a happy wife and the beautiful mother of 4 children. She was always such a light to everyone and so close to her family. Her last post on her blog was left the day before she passed away. It had no text just a picture of her oldest daughter happily swinging from a branch of a tree entiled "Happiness". My friend, Ginger's sister, told me that she stayed up until 5 am one night the last week before she died, catching up on her blog. Little did she know how precious and what comfort that would bring to her family. My heart has ached for her family as I think of the great loss they will feel with her gone especially as wife and mother. The initial shock of losing a loved one is so hard to cope with. I remember losing Heidi and how heartbroken I felt. The pain in my heart was almost too much. We prayed and God comforted us with His Spirit. I literally felt Him carrying me. I feel that Heidi chose make a sacrifice that we may remember what truly matters in this life so that we can be together again someday. Just like our Savior, Jesus Christ, made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can overcome death and sin. It has been 12 years and I still feel pain but I think of it as my friend because it reminds me of how I need to live my life to be with her. And the pain we feel here is part of the joy we will feel then(from the movie Shadowlands about C.S. Lewis). My sister shared a song with me by Diamond Rio called "God Only Cries" that brings so much comfort at this time with the loss of Ginger and Grandpa.

"God Only Cries" by Diamond Rio

On an icy road one night
A young man loses his life
They marked the shoulder with a cross
An' his family gathers round
On a piece of Hallowed ground
Their hearts are heavy with their loss
As the tears fall from their eyes
There's one who'll always sympathise.

God only cries for the living
'Cause it's the living that are left to carry on
An' all the angels up in Heaven
They're not grieving because they're gone
There's a smile on their faces
'Cause they're in a better place than, mmm, baby, than, oh
God only cries for the living
'Cause it's the living that are so far from home.

It still makes me sad
When I think of my Grand-dad
I miss him each and every day
But I know the time will come
When my own gradnson
Wonders why I went away
Maybe we're not meant to understand
Till we meet up in the Promised Land.

God only cries for the living
'Cause it's the living that are left to carry on
And all the angels up in Heaven
They're not grieving because they're gone
There's a smile on their faces
'Cause they're in a better place than, oh, baby, than oh
God only cries for the living
'Cause it's the living that are so far from home
Yeah, we're so far from home, Mmmm, Mmmm