Devotional "With a Heavy Heart" May 19, 2020

Devotional “With a Heavy Heart”           May 19, 2020

It is with a heavy heart that we remember the life of Jane Hughes.   Jane was a faithful and compassionate witness; her soft voice and endearing smile drew all of us to her.  

It is not length of life, but depth of life. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jane Hughes went to be with the Lord on Monday morning around 3:30 am.  We were blessed to have known her and during her illness, we prayed for her every Sunday for the past three years   Jane told her son Tye that she loved her little church (Wingard Lutheran) because she felt close to the Lord every time she went.  We see life as fleeting, and it fills our minds with many questions. The question always resonates within us, Why God! would you take this beautiful woman?  What is life that should be reduced to an obituary, a casket, a headstone, a cemetery, and flowers.  There is more to life and death than memorials we have an everlasting promise from God of life and an eternal promise of heaven. Life is a process of living to love and loving to care. I thought of the lyrics of George Harrison song “What is my life”

What I feel, I can't say
But my love is there for you, any time of day
But if it's not love that you need
Then I'll try my best to make everything succeed

Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side?

What I know, I can do
If I give my love now to everyone like you
But if it's not love that you need
Then I'll try my best to make everything succeed

Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side
Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side?

The video to this song What is my Life has a beautiful young ballerina pirouetting and spinning in the forest and then in the next scene the ballerina is in a cemetery continuing her ballet in front of rows and rows of white graveyard headstones.   Looking at the video, I could only think how Jane in her youth, had never given a second thought to getting old yet alone of dying.   Life can be a dance of love and memories or a bitter short cut to death.  The choice is yours.

Jane was a woman filled with love and life, willing to share her love with anyone who needed it.  Jane had a heart of compassion and was willing to help and teach others along the way.

 Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity. Mother Teresa

 

How do we approach death, how do we explain it to our Loved ones?

 

 We look at the Psalms 23

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want, he makes me to lie down in green pasture He leads me beside still waters.    He restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me your rod and your staff, they comfort me.   Notice those words “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me.

Death is only a shadow; A shadow needs a light source.  And our light source is Jesus Christ.  If we follow Jesus as the light, the shadow of death will never overwhelm us.   In him was life,^[a] and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it  John 5

Death held no fear for Jane at all. Jane had her death all worked out when she first got cancer, she spiritually prepared her heart and life for this moment.  She knew her final resting place was not of this earth where there is pain, suffering and tears.  Jane was real about her salvation she knew she was going to a better place, a place prepared for her. She did not want people to grieve and feel this was the end, but only the beginning.   

 

John 14:1-6 Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many Mansions . If it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you?and if I go to prepare a place for you,  I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?  Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life no one comes to the Father except by me.

 Jane was a brave independent woman who fulfilled her mission, raising her children Tye, Tripp and Hope, loving her husband David, building her own business International Mortgage and sharing her beautiful outlook on life.     To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord.  We love you Jane and we will miss you