So I will try each week to share a verse and hopefully we can share our thoughts and experiences or go off on a total tangent. And I guess I'll start off with one my husband I have been talking about quite a bit recently:

This is the day which the LORD has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

~Psalm 118:24

I never thought much about this verse before. It's in a hymn. We sing it at church. Everyone knows the verse. But I never really pondered it until someone said to me, "This is the day the Lord has made . . . " referring to Mattias' funeral.

And I think this is one of the hardest things I've had to struggle with as a Christian. Most people are incredibly supportive and compassionate. But I've been told by a few that grief is not for the Christian and 1Thessalonians 4:13 and this verse come up.

But I thought I'd start here because this verse has been incredibly encouraging to me. In a way, that's what my Easter post was about last year.

This is the day the Lord has made, but we can rejoice in it because "this day" isn't today. It's the day our risen King takes His place at the throne and calls us through the gate of the Lord, "through which the righteous may enter." "This day" is the day of our salvation.

My today can be filled with hurt and sorrow and tears and I can wish I were called for a different path even as Christ cried out for this cup to be taken from Him.But I know, too, that death has been conquered and that I am destined for a place where no tears may fall.

And in this I can rejoice.

The stone the builders rejected

has become the capstone;

the Lord has done this,

and it is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day the Lord has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it.

~Psalm 118:22 - 24