The Loved One

Imagine the joy of seeing a loved one again after they have passed.

Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her. - John 20:11-18

I know someone who longs to have a sign from her husband. She frets about it so much that it angers her.  

It is the hardest thing to live with, that hole that is left behind when someone leaves us.

But would losing them twice be any better, or would it be worse?

Mary gets to see Jesus again, but he warns her not to hold onto him.  He is just passing through on his way to the Father.

How painful is that?

You will lose me twice is what Jesus is telling her, and she will go and tell the brothers.

What do we want to happen when we die?  Do we want our loved ones to be stuck in the grief and pain of the hole left by our passing?  

Or do we want them to carry the best of what we had together with them into their lives?

The unselfish answer is obvious, but who can be unselfish when a loved one passes?

We can be there by their side every day through all the pain and still feel that there was something else we should have done for them, for us.

Easter is a time of hope.  It is a reminder that hope lives beyond faith.  Jesus coming back to show the brothers and followers that there is something more is our hope for eternal life.

We can believe in that.

We do believe in that, and yet the moment when loss comes is always the hardest.

It is hard not to feel there is an emptiness where there was just a fullness of love and joy.

We will all come to our moment, and there will be those left behand who feel the sudden emptiness we will leave.

What will we want them to know in that moment?

Maybe we should tell them now.

More to come...