Ann is with Jesus.

Like a flickering, fading light she slipped away.

A grace-filled dying.

Her funeral was a treasure of faces and words and songs. A beautiful house of mourning.

A hope-filled sorrowing.

She is buried not far from Marissa. Not far from Nikki and Jean and others we know. A gathering place. And a reminder that we all live out only our appointed days.

On our last day, all that matters is what we have done with Jesus.

It’s funny how a cemetery puts it all in perspective. All the drama of this life softened by just a glimpse of eternity.

The powerful glory of the cross shining steadily into the corners of grief and uncertainty for those who believe.

I am understanding more and more its merciful light.

It has been the gentlest fall, breezy and warm with color filling the trees so slowly. I’m always startled by the beauty of dying leaves.

A favorite tree in my neighborhood has delighted my heart with its vibrancy. But yesterday we had a hard rain and today its leaves are gone, its branches dark and drear.

My eyes will have to adjust, find pleasure in other sights. Adapt to the change, the season, the loss.

But my heart remembers the beauty.

My heart stays quiet, hopeful, resting.

Knowing.

Yes, the knowing settles deep.

God will make it beautiful again.

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones are formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. Ecclesiastes 11:5

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11