When Mourning Comes
When mourning comes, as it will, no matter how you've tried to prepare, we most often are not ready.
Whether we have spent a long watchful time at the bedside of a loved one, or if death takes them suddenly the reality of the finality of the end is a shock.
One of the things that my mother was right about, and she was right about many things, people don't cry at funerals for those who have passed on, we cry for ourselves.
The reasons we cry for ourselves may be we miss the individual, and their presence in our lives. Sometimes we cry because we can no long change the life surrounding our history or future with the deceased.
Many used to 'preach' the person into heaven at their funeral. Now days everyone fantasizes that their loved one 'is in heaven' enjoying their favorite hobby, from fishing to baking or sewing.
It doesn't make a difference how they lived, or even if they loved and believed in God. Heaven is where they will be ensconced. Sadly, those in that state will not fall into the hands of a dodering, old fossil of a God.
The house of mourning can teach us many things. For instance, we are told in Psalms 90:12 "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."
No one lives forever, which may be another reason we cry for ourselves. Nonetheless, use your life wisely—our days are numbered.
Applying the heart unto wisdom isn't a sentence to a life of dull, colorless, days. On the contrary, it will give a life of infinite wonder.
