On the days following my mother’s death I remember hearing the classic phrases such as, “She’s in a better place,” “What a blessing that she is no longer in pain,” and “She was such as wonderful person.”  Yes it was a blessing that she was no longer suffering from the cancer that overtook her body and who could deny the fact that she was in a better place; heaven.  She so looked forward to her eternal gift of being a faithful servant and being with her loved ones, especially her mother.  So it was not so difficult to hear those words from those who tried their very best to comfort her loved ones who felt so lost and alone in those days following her death.  The phrase, “She was such a wonderful person” though would strike something deep inside me.

From October 1943-June 2008 my mother lived a life.  She was alive.  She raised 4 children, loved her husband, and worked in nursing for many years.  She  was able to take a different path in her work life by taking a job as a church secretary.  She welcomed 12 grandchildren into the fold and was able to extend her love even more to two great-grandchildren who meant the world to her.  She lived a life where she gave much love and was loved immensely.  On a sunny Sunday June morning at approximately 7:05 a.m. she gracefully slipped into eternal slumber.  On June 28th she was living and on Jun 29th she was dead.  We would never hear her sweet voice, never feel her mom hugs again, and never see that most precious smile again.  Yes that wonderful person was no longer living on this earth.  We then started to hear others talking about her in the past tense and the classic phrases of comfort; more often than not using the word “was.”  Did it have to start that day where she became  “was?”

As that faithful servant she was she knew the reward of eternal life with our Maker.  She knew that her life would continue serving Him in heaven.  We know that our life does not stop once our physical life here on earth ends if we have faith and believe.  Due to the fact that we no longer can see them and their hearts no longer beat it is easy to say, “She was a beautiful person.”  We revel though in the fact that each of their lives are still alive even in death.  What a fantastic concept that are reflected with the words of “they are not a life that was, but a life that is.”