From November 27, 2014 through December 25, 2014, most people will gather to give thanks for a most wonderful year, for their many blessing. Friends and family will gather together to give thanks, plan for the Christmas holiday, collect Christmas lists from the children, put up Christmas decorations, and do lots of shopping for gifts and the perfect Christmas tree. Crowds galore will fill stores across the country until the very last-minute. What a wonderful and joyous season this can be. It’s exciting just thinking about it.

Unfortunately, some people will also gather to say goodbye to loved ones. It’s a sad time whenever it happens, but for some reason it’s just feels a tad more bitter when it happens around this time of year.

On the day most of us were eating our turkey dinner, people were fighting for their life. One of those was the daughter of a dear friend.  She was admitted to the hospital on Thanksgiving Day and she went to be with the Lord on November 30, 2014. She was a young woman, single and she lived to praise the Lord. She had many dreams, but the Lord called her home and that’s every believer’s ultimate dream, to be present with the Lord. Still, it difficult to understand why the Lord calls some home, so young.

I always wonder why the Lord calls people home at such a young age. Young people full of hopes and dreams, some married, some single, some barely out of the womb. This young woman lost her battle to cancer. In the end it was brain lesions that ended her life. She was in extreme pain, but she was a brave soul to the very end. She was a happy soul, full of life and enjoyed it to the end.

I am at a loss for words. I have not lost a child, so I can’t imagine the pain. I talked to a friend who lost her son at a young age in October of 1995. She was devastated at the loss, and who could blame her. It was one of those Ferguson incidents that never made it to the evening news.

Her advice was to just tell them “I will be praying for you.” There is nothing I can say that will ease their pain. And there isn’t. Empty platitudes are just that when you experience such a loss.

Well, if the death of this young woman was not enough, my daughter who had been sick for a few weeks, got violently ill over the weekend. She managed to get past it at home, but Monday, she went to see the doctor about her illness, well as it turns out the doctor told her she wanted to admit her to the hospital right away. Apparently, her illness that had yet to clear after weeks of antibiotics may have developed into viral meningitis. The violent illness this past weekend was symptomatic of viral meningitis. She has been struggling with health issues for about a year and a half, so her getting sick is always of concern.

She calls me from the doctor’s office and tells me “Mom don’t freak out…” As if I am not going to freak out. Truly, I can’t. I have to trust in God. I have to trust that this too shall pass, that any work He starts He sees to completion. I am also taking care of my grandson. He is 20 months and a handful…freaking out doesn’t help.

So, please prayer warriors will you pray for my daughter, Kate who is in the hospital now, and pray for my friends Jim and Marlene, who sent their oldest daughter home to be with the Lord. Sometimes that all we can do is pray and ask God for His favor. Thank you.

Be Blessed.