I Have Been There

I can't tell you exactly how or when it happened, but yesterday I had an epiphany of sorts. I love moments when you suddenly understand something you never did before.

There are a handful of people I used to know who have died. I could probably count them on one hand. My story is greatly fueled by their memory, and that's why this realization is so profound. Naturally, I want to see them again, sometimes very badly...I love them, after all. More than anything, it says loads about how much Jesus loves them. I never thought that he would know how we feel in this case. He's up there with them...it's not like he has to be without them like we do. But he does know what it is to love them immensely, and for that reason He completely empathizes with us being apart. Sometimes I think people we've lost would say we need to just let it go--we'll all be together soon...that they don't miss us as much as we miss them because they're in a place without pain. How do we know they wouldn't say they understand? I always pictured them as wiser, somehow super-human...but now I think that like Christ, they're in a place of empathy. So we don't have to feel bad about grieving.

"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked.
      "Come and see, Lord," they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" -- John 11: 33-36