a funeral

Tonight I got the call I've been dreading from one of my best friends. His sister, Ashley, died this afternoon after years of battling cancer.

I've known her for practically my entire life and grew up with her a year behind me in school (in the same grade as one of her brothers and a year behind my friend.) She hung out with us in high school and we went to the same youth group.

After I'd left for college she got into some trouble, got pregnant, moved out of the house, in with a boyfriend. It was not a pretty time. Now, her little boy Brandon, is a favorite at her parents house and with all of his adopted uncles (including me.)

And now, I'll be preparing for my first funeral. It feels very surreal, that the first person whom I preach over will have been someone I grew up with for 20+ years. I always thought it would be some stranger from the church who I barely knew. This funeral seems to close to my heart and part of me wants to bail.

So, keep the family in prayers as they grieve the loss of their daughter. It has been a difficult number of years and even harder in these last weeks. May God receive the glory due him in the giving and taking of life.

in Him who sustains,

-joe