Genesis 50:1 (NKJV)

“Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him, and kissed him.”

It’s ok to mourn your loved ones. The Christian stand that we need not mourn the departed in Christ because they’ve gone to a better place is jibberish. Yes, we know they have gone to a better place, but we still mourn that we shall no longer have their company for a season. Even if they departed gloriously as Jacob did, there is a place for mourning the departure from our temporary abode.

Jacob did not hold back his tears or his affections for his father. He expressed them openly and lavishly. And the Egyptians joined him to mourn for forty days.

Do not feel you’re doing something wrong when you mourn for a loved one with open weeping and sorrow. It is normal, and we should not frown at it. We only must not weep endlessly as those who have no hope and think death is the end of the journey. We mourn for a season, but we grieve with hope, knowing that death is not the end but a transition into eternity.

So mourn. But cry with hope and faith for those who died in hope and faith.

“I know I must mourn. The days of mourning are approaching. Lord, I pray that Your grace will uphold me in the days of my sorrow, because I know I will seriously need it. Amen.”