The Veil Between the Land of the Living

We live not in the Land of the Living, but in the Land of the Dead and Dying; we prepare ourselves in this land to enter, one day, into the Land of the Living. Then, the "veil shall be taken away." (see 2 Cor 3.16)

Three years ago next Monday, Ashley and I lost a friend to leukemia and three more of our friends lost their wife and mother. Death at any age is hard, but especially those deaths that seem to come "early" in our human reckoning. With no eternal perspective, it all seems so unfair; it is only with eternity in our hearts and minds that any sense can be made of it.

One of our friends who lost her momma we have known since she was six or seven (in her early 20's now!). I always remember her as the Little Princess and I share in her grief at losing her mother. Reading her blog this morning about her grief and dwelling on it brought to memory a story in our family, from the community surrounding Dellmont.

Years before I was born, my great-grandmother (father's mother's side) passed away. In the last minutes of her life on Earth she suddenly became all agitated and excited, in a good way. One of her children, at her bedside, asked her, “What’s the matter, Momma?” Great-grandmother replied with amazement, “They’re coming! I see them! My family has just come into the room to get me!” She stood juxtaposed between this life and the next, the veil between the two began to lift, and she saw her family who had gone on before her coming to get her and take her home!

It was a wondrous experience and I can only imagine her amazement as the silver cord was cut and the golden bowl broken, suddenly leaving this world to go on to the Land of the Living in the next, surrounded by those she had loved in this life!

To my friend whose mother died three years ago, I would say that I believe your Momma knew the time of her passing. And, like my great-grandmother, at the end of your life I believe you just may see her leading the way to come get you, as the veil between this world and the next rends before you!