Why are you crying?

Do you think I’m gone?

I have not left you

I am where I belong.

Every time you feel alone…

every time you’re sad…

every time your heart breaks…

every time you get mad…

all you have to do is close your eyes

and I’ll be there with you.

You see the world can take my body

but that’s all it can do.

When Jesus died on the cross,

He took away our sins.

He defeats death so we can live

in the sky where life begins.

Don’t stop the memory

of the times we share.

It is God’s way of helping you.

Take time to laugh when life gets hard

the way we used to do!

A smell? One touch? The morning sun?

All of them will help you to see.

I never left. I’m still there.

Now smile once more for me.

Live each day. She keeps looking.

My life was not in vain.

I finished the task for which I was born.

That’s why I couldn’t stay.

Until I see you again –

I love you always and forever.

There is such a void after a loved one dies. In addition to the memories of all the good times God allowed you to share, you are now faced with unfulfilled dreams of the future. Some of you will decide to put aside any future plans you have made together. Either you will believe that it is an impossible dream or that it would be wrong to go on alone. Yet others will take the path of faith for a short time, only to be saddled with all the memories of lost tomorrows.

The poem, “Forever and Ever,” was written to let you know that just because a loved one’s body dies doesn’t mean their soul dies. God gives you memories to keep your loved one with you until you are reunited in heaven. Give yourself time to grieve, but don’t block out the memory of your loved one and the special time you shared here on earth.