A tough time of year

Last night we lost an elderly parishioner.  She had been ailing for some time.  A daughter, also bordering on elderly, has lost her best friend.  The funeral will be next week.  Sadly this is likely only the beginning of the "funeral season".  It starts up about this time every year, bringing new sorrows to the Advent season and sometimes tainting the joy that is Christmas for the families involved.  Yes, we believe as Christians that we will meet again when we are all reunited in heaven with God and that brings a type of joy, but at the same time it doesn't remove the loneliness and sorrow NOW.  Admitting that earthly death is probably a blessing for the relative who has passed on, the end of their suffering has been achieved, seems so theoretical to those who are even temporarily left behind here.  This Advent I am so aware of suffering in the lives of friends and family.  This week it seems that every email, every phone call brings more bad news of illness, accident and, even death.  Being married to a minister makes it all the more real....the suffering of others.  It also makes the comfort of the Lord more real.  The suffering is binding together members of the Christian community as they reach out to help each other, to pray together, deliver meals to each other, telephone each other with words of comfort, visit each other with hugs and gifts to lift the spirits of those in need.  The light of Christmas is dawning as the season of Advent is drawing to a close; not only in church services but in the lives of people here in my town and elsewhere.  Through tragedy and even the smallest of woes we are assisting each other to heal because we have the hope that is set before us:  Jesus the Christ, the Comforter, the Provider, the one who sets us free in our hearts and spirits no matter the circumstances that surround us.