When we experience a loss, we are called in Scripture to grieve, but we grieve as those who have hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). The below piece offers us such hope. It is ascribed to Matthew Henry who was a Presbyterian minister in the late 1600s and early 1700s in England.

If we have a believing friend or relative who has recently passed away, this is what they might say to us if they could speak. It is entitled: WEEP NOT FOR ME.

Would you like to know where I am?
I am at home in my Father’s house, in the mansion prepared for me there.
I am where I would be --
No longer on the stormy sea, but in the safe and quiet harbor.
My working time is done and I am resting;
My sowing time is done and I am reaping;
My joy is as the joy of harvest.

Would you know how it is with me?
I am made perfect in holiness.
Grace is swallowed up in glory,
Faith no longer hopes, but sees.
Mortality has given way to life as it was meant to be.

Would you know what I am doing?
I see God.
I see Him as He is, not as through a glass darkly, but face to face,
And the sight is transforming, it makes me like him.
I am in the sweet enjoyment of my blessed Redeemer.
I am here singing hallelujahs incessantly to Him who sits upon the throne,
And I rest not day or night from praising Him.

Would you know what company I keep?
Blessed Company —
Better that the best on earth.
Here are holy angels and the spirits of just men made perfect.
I am set down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the saints.
And here I meet with many of my old acquaintances with whom I worked,
And the dearest of the world whom I loved and with whom I prayed
Who came here before me.

Would you know how long this is to continue?
It is the dawn that never withers,
The crown of glory that fades not away.
After millions and millions of ages it will be as fresh as it is now,
And therefore, weep not for me.