1st week of Hospice Class

Mourning: been going to a grief series at the hospice here in town, we meet twice a week with a small group of 10. I'm amazed how perfect strangers can open up about themselves (transparency) and Christian groups interact like stonewalls.

The things I picked up from the class, we grieve over different things other than death. Divorce, graduation, retirement, defects/illness, birth, marriage, college, moving, changes in health, aging parents, loss of pets, loss of ability, friendship/relationship, fire, robbery, leaving home and safety.

It seems our culture does not give the person the adequate time they need to grieve. So that they may function better in healthy ways. It seems our culture is afraid of death and is unwilling to comfort it in a healthy manner as people have done in the past, as a result, few of us know how to deal I respond to death on a personal level or understand our grief.

In Chapter 11 of the book of John, death was excepted as part of life, as well as the grieving process. It was acceptable to grieve and allow time for grieving and not to spend all your time grieving alone. It was customary for the Jews to bury their dead on the day of their death, since they did not embalm them. During funeral procession's men and women walk separately. Women would return from the burial site to begin the 30 day mourning. Many of their mourners would remain with the family. That explains why the Jews who came to console Mary and Martha were still with them four days after the burial.

John 11:17-19 : here's a thought about In the Tomb four days. 
The Jews believe that the soul hovered around the body for three days after death, hoping to reenter it. On the fourth day seeing that the body was beginning to decompose the soul departed "that makes Lazarus very dead of the very dead". With all this, Lazarus is not the primary focus of the story. The main emphasis is Jesus and the Father being glorified through the resurrection of Lazarus. And to strengthen the faith of his disciples.
"I called this the sorting out of the sheep from the goats, the weeds from the wheat". Because of the resurrection of Lazarus, some of the mourners will come to a saving faith, while some will just become indifferent and hostile.

D.A.D.