Saying Goodbye

Today I attended the funeral service for my dear friends' beautiful five year old daughter. My heart is overflowing with emotion from the experience. Her parents are two of the strongest most amazing people that I know. As I reflect upon the experience I am of course filled with sorrow and grief at the thought of the loss they are experiencing but more than that I am filled with gratitude. I am so grateful for the gospel and the knowledge we have been blessed with. I am eternally grateful that families are forever, that death is not the end but only a brief separation from those that we love.
I went a bit early to the funeral to help decorate and set up. I was asked to take some flowers into the viewing area and as I walked into the room I was at first taken back to walk in and find the tiny white casket open with that sweet baby girl resting in it. I took a deep breath and walked over. As sad as that moment was I felt the reassurance of the Spirit testify that her spirit was no longer here, that just her body was left. This little girl was now wrapped in the arms of her loving Father in heaven; freed from the limitations of her mortal body she was now able to walk, run and dance!
My prayers and thoughts are with my dear friends in their time of unimaginable trial.
I came across a talk given by Elder Wirthlin entitled, "Sunday Will Come" and I took comfort in this part in particular. He said:

"The Resurrection is at the core of our beliefs as Christians. Without it, our faith is meaningless. The Apostle Paul said, “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and [our] faith is also vain.”5

In all the history of the world there have been many great and wise souls, many of whom claimed special knowledge of God. But when the Savior rose from the tomb, He did something no one had ever done. He did something no one else could do. He broke the bonds of death, not only for Himself but for all who have ever lived—the just and the unjust.6

When Christ rose from the grave, becoming the firstfruits of the Resurrection, He made that gift available to all. And with that sublime act, He softened the devastating, consuming sorrow that gnaws at the souls of those who have lost precious loved ones.

I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross.

On that terrible Friday the earth shook and grew dark. Frightful storms lashed at the earth.

Those evil men who sought His life rejoiced. Now that Jesus was no more, surely those who followed Him would disperse. On that day they stood triumphant.

On that day the veil of the temple was rent in twain.

Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus, were both overcome with grief and despair. The superb man they had loved and honored hung lifeless upon the cross.

On that Friday the Apostles were devastated. Jesus, their Savior—the man who had walked on water and raised the dead—was Himself at the mercy of wicked men. They watched helplessly as He was overcome by His enemies.

On that Friday the Savior of mankind was humiliated and bruised, abused and reviled.

It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow that gnawed at the souls of those who loved and honored the Son of God.

I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest.

But the doom of that day did not endure.

The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind.

And in an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried. The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise, for Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as the firstfruits of the Resurrection, the proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence.

Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come."

Joseph B. Wirthlin, “Sunday Will Come,” Liahona, Nov 2006, 28–30

I am eternally grateful for the knowledge that I have been blessed with. I too know that Sunday will come.