In the past six weeks my family has lived through the death of my younger brothers wife and the birth of my youngest brothers first grandchild.

Undefinable loss
and indescribable joy.

The passing of a woman I have known for over 40 years was prefaced by three and one half years of pain, prayer, belief and encouragement while she fought, and was several times triumphant over an enemy inside her body…. that unwelcomed visitor eventually squeezed the life out of her.

And it was a great,
beautiful and peaceful life she walked through. She blest my brother with love, commitment and two great sons….
and exampled for all of us patience,
a quiet nature, encouragement and a peaceful spirit.

The birth of a young boy was known to be coming over the past several months. Those few months were filled with anticipation, planning, prayer and some pain.
Just a few days ago the process came to fruition and the welcomed life inside my niece was pushed out of the comfort of her womb to the the uncertainty of life.

The little boy has a great legacy of life to grow into.

His young life will most likely not be very quiet, it will be one where he requires the patience of others, and his nature and spirit will eventually be revealed.

While my sister-in-law moved from
the visible life here,
to another existence we cannot see but have absolute assurance about…
the young boy went from a visible but unseen existence into the life we all know, live and breathe in.

I had great affection for and possess a lifetime of remembrance surrounding my brothers wife. There are over 40 years of visual,
and audible experiences with her.

With this new little boy I have no connection save for the love I automatically have for him through the life I have experienced with his grandparents, his mother and father.

The coming and going of life,
the tears that come from one leaving
and that come from another arriving,
leads us to know that this existence
is sometimes undefinable and indescribable.

I believe both of these souls are getting definition….
beyond our comprehension.

The little boy has sight,
he is seeing everything …
with no understanding to define it.
He cannot yet put words to the wonder he sees.

My sister-in-law had sight here…
has sight where she now is,
and is in an existence where understanding is now perfectly clarified and defined. She has words to describe it but
we might not be able to fathom the Wonder she is beholding.

There is pain and joy in both of these experiences.

Pain in the sense that life will be different.
That one home which was full of her
life, smile and beauty no longer has that presence…..
while another home that was quiet will be full of
crying, toys, movement and noise.

Joy is present in the knowledge that the woman we knew and loved is in the Presence of Christ, and is experiencing forever the now fulfilled promise of Faith.
While a young boy we love already and will grow to know is in our presence and is experiencing the fulfilled hope of the love of his parents.

This life is full and filled with Promise.
Full of the beauty of Creation, filled with the hope of our parents and our own hearts, full of family and the colors and experience of Life.

This life is also full of joy and pain …..the joy of success and happiness along with the pains of struggle and failure. The pain of loss and the joy of new birth.

Tears shed from pain come from the same eyes that cry tears of joy.

In the past few weeks,
the eyes of my family have shed tears of pain,
and tears of joy.

Those tears were shed about
LIFE…..
the ending and the beginning of
varying existences.

The comfort I take in both of these circumstances is that the existence, I know and the one I do not yet know….
are in the Hands of The One Who gave this very life to me, and has prepared the next for me, as well.

It is easy to give explanation to the hope of assurance that has become the experience of life.

It is hard to perfectly define and describe an assurance I possess…. that I have not physically experienced.
But, I walk in that assurance everyday.

The two people I have written about today are newly experiencing that Assurance ….now realized … through physical and spiritual
definitions.

Undefinable.
Indescribable.

October 2017