I stayed up into the late hours of the night that then turned into morning light. With my journal in my hand I wrote down every memory I could recollect–I wanted to savor them, store them in my breaking soul, and never forget them.

I realized I had to move out of bed this morning and face this hard new reality, my Aunt Susan is in Heaven. So far away from us on earth yet close to her Father, delighting in her Creator–who loves his daughter and carried her home yesterday.

My mind races and my heart aches yet I am reminded in this grieving–her dying is over. The death that ate away inside her body is finished. Her savior called her home and said, “Well done good and faithful servant.” and clothed her with a new, glorious, eternal body that won’t give way.

My Bible is my comfort this morning. It is my daily bread–reminding me to not give up hope.

Reading through Ecclesiastes this morning I read over chapter 7:1-4 over and over again. I wiped the tears from my eyes as I starred at the words…she is home. Victory. Death did not and could not win.

Because the grave is empty, and Jesus is alive,  there is hope for us all. I will celebrate her life, I will tell her stories of her beautiful soul, but most of all I rejoice she is home, forever with the Father. Until that day I meet my maker,  I dare to hope on this temporary earth. This is not my home, I am just passing through for such a time as this.

 “And the day you die is better than the day you are born.” Ecc. 7:1

“Death is the end of dying. On the day of the believer’s death dying is for ever done with. The saints who are with God shall never die any more. Life is wrestling, struggling; but death is the end of conflict: it is rest-victory.” (Spurgeon)

*one of my last fun memories with Aunt Susan is when I visited her in Arizona. Her joy was infectious and her love unending.