Grief is normal.

Grief is necessary.

Grief is needed.

It also stinks.

Probably everyone who reads this blog has had to bury a loved one. Our church, Good Shepherd's, recently heard of the unexpected death of a former principal. Dead at 41. Massive heart attack. It stinks.

"Lord if you had been here..." We always have lots of questions when it comes to death and even more when the death is sudden or unexpected. It seems easier to bury someone who is old and sick, but even then the heartache and pain and grief are still there. A question forms in our mind that is at the same time unanswerable and mildly accusing, "Lord, why?" Or, to put it another way, "If you had just done something."

But he does. He did. This is the season of Easter, after all. "Christ is risen, he is risen indeed!" We celebrate that. We should celebrate that. Death is not the end. The sudden loss of a friend, a colleague, a family member, a spouse, a child, need not be just a crash into a brick wall and a life shattered to pieces. There can also be hope.

"Lord if you had been here...but even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask." And what is it that Jesus asks for every human being? It is that they would not die but live. For our former principal at Good Shepherd's, that means he lives eternally. This is a good thing. This is THE good thing the only thing that really matters in a world full of death. And Jesus doesn't just want this, he grants this. It is why he came.

"I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live, even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die." John 11:25,26

Grief is normal.

Grief is necessary.

Grief is needed.

It stinks.

But in Christ our grief finds an answer that leads to eternal life.