When Life makes You Stop for a Moment

"Joy is the serious business of Heaven."

-C. S. Lewis


A friend of the family passed away last night. I suppose that she was more my wife's friend than mine, yet we were friends just the same. She had valiantly fought a debilitating disease for a long time now, well over 15 years, and by the grace of God been able to have her immediate family at her side when the battle had ended.

It is moments like these, when you've just heard terrible news, which make life appear almost surreal. Someone is here, someone who seemed to have always been here, then they're gone. It all turns in an instant. Then we find ourselves thinking that this person is someone who we're worked with, whose kids went to school with ours and played on sports teams together, who we've had dinner and drinks with and fought the good fight astride. The world somehow has changed.

As Christians, we know that such an exit is one we'll all face one day, and we know that it is not the end. For her, I don't doubt, is certainly isn't. But we should pray for her soul and her family just the same. As tempting as it is to soft peddle, we need to remember that that's what it's ultimately all about: the best thing we can do for her is pray that all's well. For her and her husband and kids. It's not about us, tempting as that is too: it's about her, the very personal her who we've known for so long, the her who needs us now probably more than ever.

For it's never really over, you know. "Further up and further in," to the realm of Heaven, C. S. Lewis tells us in The Last Battle, the final Narnia book. Her story is not over; only a chapter has closed. It is for us here to finish writing our earthly stories until that day when all tales converge, when all we need to know is known to us. On that day, our own personal Easter, we see everything as it should be seen.

My friend, God willing, has that now. We should revel in it ourselves.