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To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the sun. Time to mourn and a time to dance (Ecclesiastes 3:1). When someone dear to us passes away we mourn the loss of his or her absence, and in mourning we are reminded of our own mortality, however, we do not mourn like those who have no hope. 

Mourning by expressing grief is highly appropriate regardless of a person’s spirituality, academic prowess, and social standing. We express mourning in different ways depending upon our individual personality and culture. There is nothing wrong, deficient, and illogical about mourning a dear one such as parent, spouse, child, sibling, cousin, friend or a tragic death of someone you may not know. Seasons of mourning are both solemn and powerful.  

In spite of our various cultural or traditional approach to mourning, one thing central in all of them is that it is done with honor, respect, and dignity towards the person we are mourning. The weight and the magnitude of the human soul is almost never strongly felt than during times of mourning. Again, the significance of human origin, purpose and destination often dawns on us during mourning. 

Obviously, when we mourn or grief honestly it results in healing, and closure. As believers we only mourn the loss of the late person’s physical presence, gestures, generosity, humor and the unique things that reminds us about the person. Indeed, the absence of those characteristics can be a huge loss. However, we are assured that the soul of the diseased is at home with God, and we shall be united together in due time.   

Times of mourning reminds us of our own mortality. The unspoken grief and sense of helplessness that lies beneath our consciousness about the state of our own mortality is awakened whenever someone close to us dies. To be mortal is  to be subject to death or doomed to die. “Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble. 2 They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure (Job 14:1-2). 

Jesus mourned the mortality of man when he stood by the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:33). “Every breath we draw wards off death that is constantly intruding upon us. Every meal we eat, every sleep we take, and every caution we exercise in life. But in the end we must succumb to death because we are born to die” (Schopenhauer). Clearly, the Bible says, It is appointed unto man once to die…(Hebrews 9:27). Mourning over the state of our mortality should neither intimidate us nor plunge us into despair. Instead, it should inform how we live our life, and embolden us to ask the question, Where do I come from? Why am I here? And where am I going?  

There is no mystery or scientific sophistication about your origin, purpose, and destination other than you were created by God, you are meant to glorify God, and you are destined to stand before Him when your temporary mortal life is over. In (Psalm 90:12), the song writer prayed to God saying, “Lord Teach us to number our days, so we can live for things that matter.”   

We do not mourn like people who have no hope. “To be absent from the body is to be present with God” (2Corinthians 5:8). The believer steps out of this mortal shell only to be clothed with immortality and be united with the Lord.  “For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died” (Thessalonians 4:14).  Jesus, said “let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, and believe also in me. For I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:1). We are hopeful in our mourning. For we know that we are eternally secured in the arms of God, and that nothing shall be able to separate us from God whether we live or die.  

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