Growing up, it is so easy to take for granted that God has given us siblings as lifelong friends and companions. They are the only people that will know you for your entire life, and they are supposed to grow old with you. You know each others deepest secrets and share feelings about situations that you go through together. We expect to age together, contend with one another in our youth, and rediscover the treasure that we have in each other in our older years.

Sometimes though, the unexpected comes and that beautiful treasure is either not realized soon enough, it is tossed away over a difference of opinion, or life ends before you feel it should be finished.

Last February my sister was diagnosed with stage 4 panreatic cancer and the next 11 months would rock our world and shift our understanding. For so long we prayed for God to heal her and believed that her healing would come this side of heaven, but as time moved on, we learned that her healing would happen in the presence of our precious Lord.

My sister Kelly left us in the early hours of January 9th, 2023. God allowed me to “walk her to heaven” as I held on to her when she passed. I never was able to imagine this depth of grief and sadness…I’ve lost friends, my dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles, even 4 of my own children, but each loss is different and leaves such an emptiness. I am seeking after Papa God to fill those hurting places as only He is able.