Joy!
I
was not the only one who noticed!
Do
not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength! - Nehemiah 8
Two
weekends ago we celebrated my brother-in-law, Angelo, at a memorial service in
California.
As
a former marine the service began with a Color Guard from the Marine
Corps. The folding and presenting of the
flag were very tearful moments. Angelo’s
sister, Annette, sang a duet (How Great Is Our God) with Laurie – it was
beautiful. You would never have known
that they never had time to rehearse.
Even
the error in the flow of the program was beautiful and funny. Instead of a video of an Angelo memory, what
we saw was a video of the Mighty Sparrow – for those of you who don’t know,
he’s from Trinidad and sings calypsoes.
We
shed tears, especially listening to his nephew, Robert and young friend, Cameron,
share their memories.
Denise
got up to sing “I Can Only Imagine” … and my sister, Cheryl danced. We were not expecting it. We were emotional, she was emotional… but in
the midst of this… the song goes…
‘To be
surrounded by your glory
What will my
heart feel
Will I dance
for you Jesus
Or in awe of
you be still…”
Cheryl is using
sign language while dancing… I look at her hands and body. But in the midst of this… I looked at her
face and saw pure JOY! She was dancing for her Angel in heaven. She tells me she was not aware of her it. She is not joyful that Angelo has passed, but
she is joyful about where he is. Angelo
was the love of her life and she misses him, but our God is the ultimate
comforter. There is nothing more
comforting that thinking of Angelo sleeping IN Jesus! Can you imagine? In all of His Glory, being encased and
surrounded by Him. Thank you Jesus! Please keep Cheryl in prayer.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus - 1 Thessalonians 4:14
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