as an antidote to studying for the really boring exam which is coming up on monday, i’ve been making birthday cards. (: birthdays, mine or otherwise, make me happy and i thoroughly enjoy making birthday cards! birthdays remind us of the day we popped into the world and made our parents happy (since well, children are a gift from God). and so i cram all my wishes and sparkliness on that one wordy scrap of paper.

but today i made a card of a different sort, a condolence card. and i didn’t know what to say. how do you even begin to express your condolences to a mother whose 2yearold kiddo just passed away? standing in the church office folding the blue order of service with the special Dora the Explorer cover and seeing the words ‘the funeral of a child’ more than 200 times does not numb you to reality. at all.

yet the words of Jesus come to mind when He said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” We do not know why jill left so early, but we know she found rest; and so would kelly and jon in due course. we do not know why such a seemingly difficult yoke and heavy burden had to be placed upon kelly and jon, but we know that Jesus says His yoke is easy and His burden is light. it is easy and light only because Jesus already took the hardest yoke and the heaviest burden for us.

And we know that our God was human, a man of sorrows, accquanited with grief. And this God is also a with-us-God, who hears our every cry, who heard jill’s every cry, who will hear kelly and jon’s every cry. And we can say with confidence that jill fought the good fight, she ran the race (no matter how short it may have seemed), and she kept the faith.

and it was so apt that tonight in the funeral parlour, with the pretty blue helium and dora the explorer balloons, they sang her favourite sunday school song. let it shine!

This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine,
Let it shine,
Let it shine.

Let it shine til Jesus comes,
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine til Jesus comes,
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine til Jesus comes,
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine,
Let it shine,
Let it shine.