In searching for my son's Birth certificate yesterday for him, I ended up having to go through 3 boxes a port-a-file and then the big plastic bin that usually lives on top of my wardrobe, which contains all my photo albums and the family photo collection that was passed down to me from my maternal grandmother who adopted and raised me.

I was lost for several hours sorting through papers and then reliving memories of lost love and when my children were little. I did not grieve for more than a moment - I do not regret, although I am now alone, how can I regret the hours spent with those I love. Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. Just as I cannot regret the hours of pain in labor, forgotten and unimportant once the baby was laid in my arms. Life is often bittersweet, and Jesus came to heal the broken-hearted, I qualify, there is more room in a broken heart as long as you hold on to Jesus and don't allow bitterness to take you over.

Deep in the depths of the box of photo-albums lay a small red-leather bound, forgotten ledger - written in my Grandmother's handwriting. Notes she made of things she wanted to remember. I am keeping it for her, she passed away in 1994 but our New Testament Reading today is all about, The Resurrection of the Dead. So I want to share with you today one small note she made in the ledger, it was a quote from Queen Elizabeth II's father, a piece of wisdom from time past: -

'King George VI said in a Christmas broadcast (during the War), I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, "Give me light that I may see my way" and he replied, "Put your hand into the hand of God and go out into the darkness, it shall be unto you better than a light and better than a known way."