Well, Sunday started out like any other, I get up and then make the rounds throughout the house waking up every other family member and coaxing them all out of the bed one at a time. Once we all get rolling and in the car, we are usually about 10 minutes late already. Matthew and I have a system about getting in the door to church. I check the kids in and fight with Mattie to get him in the door to his class (EVERY SUNDAY), and Matthew does the most important job of all...GETS THE COFFEE!! We teach the Fourth Graders on Sundays so the coffee is our saving grace. Thank you to the dedicated Sozo Cafe staff by the way. Anyway, off to teach our awesome Fourth Graders, we are finishing up the year with them so we are gonna be sad to say goodbye! We had a VERY sparse crowd on Sunday due to Memorial Day, but we learned about the virtue of patience and heard the final chapter of Joshua and Jericho. After our replacements arrived Matthew and I went downstairs to attend the worship service. This was particularly awesome because I have either been out of town, or working the UpTown ministry for both services so I haven't been to "big" church in about a month. I was so excited, I hardly knew what to do!
Well, we started singing and boy have I missed singing like that! I was perfectly fine and doing well, and then it started... a song that I can't listen to without crying. Chris Tomlin's Amazing Grace My Chains are Gone. Now, some of you may not know why this song gets me so teary. I am getting a bit teary now just thinking of it. Just a few months ago I suffered the greatest loss of my life so far. On November 2, 2007 my best friend passed away after a 4 1/2 year battle with breast cancer. This song was played at her funeral and truly the words express the freedom in death that we, as followers of Jesus Christ, have. I know that Gena is free from the pain that cancer gave her every day. She is free from the sufferings that she dealt with in the final 2 months that she was on hospice care. The chains that this world bound her with are gone, and she is FREE. She is in heaven now, with our Father, and she was ransomed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Gena is finally in her heavenly body, the one she was intended to have, dancing with the One who created us all.
So my tears on Sunday came, and they came hard, and they still come. They come because I miss her terribly and I wish she was here with me, with her kids, with her family. They also come because I know that she is so happy and free, and not looking back to the world that we remain in. I am happy to have the peace that there is eternal life after our earthly death, and I am not mourning over the finality of it. I know that I WILL see her again, and yes, I miss her, I am sad for me, not for her.
I love that song, I love the words, I love that it reminds me of my best friend, I even love that it makes me cry. It is still very cleansing to cry for Gena, and that song gives me an excuse and I don't have to explain it. (except of course in this blog) I hope that they sing it again at church, just next time I hope that I have kleenex.
I love you Gena-Beana!
"Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)"
Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see'
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love, Amazing grace
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbid to shine
But God,
Who called me here below
Will be forever mine
Will be forever mine
You are forever mine
Me, Gena, and Renee' 
