sleep with the angels Flo...

Death and grief are little things. They are transcient. Life must be before death and joy before grief, else there are no such things as death or grief. These are only negatives, life is positive. Death is only the absence of life, just as night is the absence of day…

~Frank Norris~

 

I was asleep, just a few minutes ago. It’s hard to believe that now, because I do not see any sleep before my eyes now. It’s funny how things work out. The first familiar face I met in campus was this girl who I had been in high school with, the girl in whose Bible study I landed, who helped me settle into campus and everything. I spoke of that here. It was through her that I met Dinah and Mukiri, and a bunch of other people who eventually ended up a lot closer to me. Sometimes life happens that way.

Oh, her name’s Flo. It’s funny how things work out. I woke up this morning and went through some of the things I mulled over earlier in this blog, including this post in which I paid tribute to Lasoi’s mother. I knew her, not in any warm chummy kind of way, but her passing hit home. Enough to write a post about it. And now I am in the same shoe. My friend and sister Flo rests in the Lord’s arms tonight, after a hard and spirited fight with illness.

She won’t be there when the next wedding comes up (I bet that’s gonna be Dinah’s), no singing the night before until morning, no hugs from heaven itself at the most opportune of moments… 

But she is with the Lord. And we remain here, torn between those questions we so desperately want answers to, and believing that indeed all things are working according to God’s perfect plan.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away… For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then (we shall see) face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known…

~The Bible~

I do not doubt it, not for a second I do not doubt it, but it’s just hard. It is the way of every human, it is my way too... she was so young… and so brave… it’s almost as though God was preparing me for Mukiri’s call… I almost didn’t answer, I was so tired… But the moment she began I saw it a mile away…

And so, even though I don’t know the grander plan, or you know, tomorrow, I choose to say blessed be His name… Florence Anyango Okoth, sleep with the angels… rest easy love… God knows we shall miss you, but you are in the best hands under the best care possible… You won’t be crying anymore, only praising eternally… until we meet…

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the thing which are not seen are eternal.

~The Bible~