by Erich Bridges and Jerry Rankin
From Page 223
“ The pain is deep, the grief prolonged. We do not readily get over the abrupt loss of a colleague and a friend. The death of a son or daughter, husband, father or brother, wife, mother or sister, leaves an ache in the depth on one’s soul. The vibrant smile is gone; the hearty laugh is silent. The intimate sharing with a mentor and encourager has ceased. We cannot understand why one devoted to serving the Lord would have his or her ministry cut short or why the light of a testimony in a dark world would be extinguished.
Yes, we grieve. A missionary team feels a glaring gap when one of its members is no longer there. A family who has been accustomed to separation and only occasional fellowship during a periodic furlough, struggles with the reality that the loved one will not be coming home again. Our Lord identified with our grief in the loss of a friend, and we know that He identifies with us still. It is not incidental that His abiding presence in the person of the Holy Spirit would be identified as the ‘the Comforter’, the One who comes alongside us and brings peace to our troubled hearts and grace to minister to our need. "