Separation and Reunion

I went to a funeral yesterday. One of our church members passed away on Monday. I didn't know him that well, but I knew him. I had seen him around in church and shook his hand on a few occasions. He was already an old and ill for a long time, so his wife and family were prepared when it happened.

As I watched him laying peacefully in his casket, I felt my mortality more than ever. Death comes to all. You are born, you live and then you die. From dust we were made, to dust we shall return. That's the cycle of life.

The sorrow I felt didn't come from his death; he had lived a full life and he was in now in a better place. It was when I would put myself in his son's shoes.

Separation is always hard. When I was young, I used to dislike airports for the reason that it always reminded me of that dreadful feeling of separation. The last hugs, sad goodbyes and final farewells.

When I was older, I came to realize that the airport was a place of reunion as well. What the departure was to sorrow, the arrival hall was to joy. People waiting with anticipating faces, which at the first sighting of their loved ones, would break out into a bright, wide smile accompanied with a frantic wave. It's a wonderful feeling which I'm sure everyone has felt.

When separation like this happens, as it eventually will in everyone's life, I believe that what separates those who are sad and those who are the most sorrowful, is the promise of reunion.

The promise that the separation we're experiencing is not permanent, but merely temporary.

The promise that in the life after this one, we will see each other again.