I attended a Celebration of Life last week.

My sweet friends Momma went to be with Jesus.

Gone too soon.

58 and gone already? It just doesn’t seem fair. However, a debilitating disease like Dementia doesn’t discriminate. Diseases invade your life without invitation. It wrecks your life and the lives of your people. Disease doesn’t ask permission and it definitely starts to stink after a few days, let alone years.

My friend and her sister sang at the service. The band started to play and my tears immediately fell.

The old song, “He Touched Me” began to play.

Ya’ll that song………

The promises this song talks about. As a child of a parent who suffered and finally met Jesus in December of 2017, there is a promise of being made whole. There is no more suffering and no more pain. The promise of joy.

As I listened to the gentleman speak who knew their family for years. He knew them prior to disease invading their lives. He spoke of Tina being such an example of God to her family. She taught her children to pray and the girls would walk into their home and find their Mom kneeling on the floor praying over their home and their family.

She loved. Those were the words he used.

He spoke of how her body is now dancing on the streets of glory. She’s not the shell she was as she left this earth. She is whole.

They played a video of family and friend photos. Her voice was the background music.

I did not know Tina. I had never met her. However I have sang with her daughters. Worshipped. And as I closed my eyes and listened to the voice on the video, I heard my friend. What a incredible gift to receive from your Mom.

Tina’s husband Bo rose to speak.

He eloquently thanked everyone for taking time out of their schedule to attend the service.

He continued, “Horrible things happen to good people. Sometimes evil seems to succeed.” But God does not answer the proposition why? But He does answer “How” better than anything else.

When chaos or tragedy knocks on your door, Almighty God knows how to give you strength and gives you stability.

There is a song by Kasey Musgraves called ” Rainbow.” It has been on repeat the last few days.

I don’t know what the reference of the songs point towards but I do know what the rainbow represents and the promises of God.

Here’s the song if you want to listen

I was traveling from Orlando early this morning and was able to see the sunrise in the background. So much traffic but I was able to get a glimpse of the beauty while sitting at a red light. Cause you know Orlando traffic.

The Bible talks about a little while and how it’s just a moment in time.

We have the sting of separation as our loved ones go before us but we are all going to experience a reunion and that little moment in time will become eternity.

At the end of the service, the girls sang again.

I didn’t want to be irreverent so I pointed my phone down during the last song, “Who you say I am.” Unknowingly pointing it directly at the picture of Tina. A woman, according to her people, was exactly Who He says she is. A child of the Almighty. A woman who loved her family. A family that loved her back. In good times and in bad. In sickness and in health. Till death do us part.

Hug your people.