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b'Torchlight flickered in the dark, casting shadows on faces, reflecting golden light off the water\\u2014beautiful, and wrong. My mother\\u2019s body was laid in the funeral boat and covered with flowers. Someone said, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153It was her time to go.\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d The comment stung me, just like all the other well-meaning condolences.\\nTheir voices still prattled on in my head. \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153She lived a good life. She\\u2019ll be watching over us from above. The Creator missed her too much to let her stay here with us.\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d Something inside me snapped. My ears started ringing. My vision grew blurry. My mouth opened and said, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153You know nothing.\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d It was barely a whisper. No one heard me. My breathing got faster, heavier. I lifted my head to the sky, and out of my open mouth came\\u2026something true.\\nIt was not a wail. It was not a cry. It was not a yell. It was uglier. It was fiercer. It was raw. It was real. It burned my throat, but it felt right. Right. The only thing that had been right in days. Because everything was so, so wrong.\\nSome of the people were staring at me. Some looked away. But one face met mine. Soft eyes, gray hair. This woman saw. She knew. Then she opened her mouth and joined my song. Together we shrieked to the night\\u2014of the wrongness, of the death that stole my mother. I screamed faster, and my howls became sobs. The woman was beside me now. She held my hand. I didn\\u2019t pull away.\\nI don\\u2019t remember the people leaving, but this woman stayed. She wept and moaned with me as the waves rushed and fled over the pebbles. All the heaving in my middle induced my stomach to empty, and the old woman held my hair. Then she rocked me. Slowly, tenderly. She hummed a lullaby and stroked the hair from my clammy face. My breathing started to slow. My exhausted limbs loosened. My tears made spots on her skirt.\\n\\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153There is One who grieves with us,\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d she said softly, lifting her face to the stars. \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153He is the One who holds your mother, and He holds you.\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d We sat together under the sky\\u2019s beauty, and then she sang an old song I had nearly forgotten. \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153The Great One is with us. He came. He faced death alone. For us, He came. For love, He came. And His return will be death\\u2019s undoing.\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d \\u2022 Hannah Howe\\n\\u2022 Can you think of a time you experienced loss? How did others respond?\\n\\u2022 How could you come alongside people who are grieving? \\nMourn with those who mourn. Romans 12:15b (NIV)\\n\\xa0\\nRead Verses:\\nMatt.13.31-Matt.13.32|Heb.4|Matt.11.28'