Dear Friends in Christ -
As we were saying our prayers during the 8:00 a.m. service on Sunday morning, our oldest member, Rose Czajkowski, passed from this life into the next. She was 97 years old.
Last week, another one of our oldest members, Virginia Tucker, 92, made her way into eternity. Both of these wonderful women had seen a lot of living.
Though I have known each of these women for only a fraction of their long lives, their passings move me to grief. As they leave this life, the ground beneath us shifts. Things will never be the same.
I felt that way, too, as we said goodbye to Marybeth and Jerry Banks on Sunday. They're not dying, they're just moving. But with their leaving, the ground shifts again.
When things change, so dramatically, so permanently, and deep inside ourselves, our hearts cry, "What's going to happen to me? With the sea of life constantly changing, is my little boat going to be swamped or overturned?"
The promise of God to us is that He will take care of us. As the Bible reminds us, "Jesus Christ is the same - yesterday, today and forever." (Heb. 13:8). We can embrace the changes that happen, even the losses we grieve, because the power of Jesus' resurrection will always see us through. We don't always like change; it's hard to move on without some of the anchors that made us feel so secure. But we can dare to celebrate the lives of those we love and let them move into their own glory, confident that Christ will move us, in good ways, into the next glory He has for us.
Faithfully,
Janet+
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