April 30, 2001

we buried what used to be you yesterday

mournful after the celebration of salvation

saying our final goodbyes to a good man

family gathered silently around what remained

your unused body the focus of our sadness

we know you are in glory and that our grief

is no longer yours

and for that we could rejoice, thank God!

we do not grieve for you but for your absence

the hole that has been left in our lives

God has given us the joy of your friendship

which sin’s effect has now removed from us

we do not grieve your joy but the loss of ours

even knowing that the reunion will be sweet

with joy greater by far than all we have seen

but while we struggle toward that goal

a helper has been taken and we mourn

In memory of Rick Campbell