The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus!

When I hear this song I am amazed at where I am now and where I was just a few years ago.  I thank and praise the Lord of Hosts for His deep and unimaginable love, forgiveness, and redemption!!!

Death of a Friend

A friend of mine died of a brain aneurysm around 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  He was buried today.  I've never had a friend my age die.  He was just 3 or 4 years older than my husband.  His wife is left to raise two high schoolers and two elementary children alone.  Three of them are boys.  I talked to her this evening on the phone.  She's exhausted.  We talked.  We laughed.  We cried for about ten seconds.  She's too tired to cry and I can't expect a widow to carry my grief over the death of her husband.  His 24-year-old son from his first marriage is moving down to help his step-mother and his siblings.

My friend was a Christian.  He was a real person.  Not phony.  He was who he was and he was wonderful.  My husband and I loved him.  And now he has gone home.  His wife is trusting the Lord to provide.  And He already has.  His employer paid the over $10,000 for his funeral and is going to pay for his family's health insurance for 6-8 months while she sets up life without him.  His burial plot was given to them by the church.  I know He will carry them through.

Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
   extol him who rides on the clouds;
   rejoice before him - his name is the Lord.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
   is God in his holy dwelling.

                                ~Psalm 68:4-5~