Only it will be coupled with eternal glory

If there is one thing that motherhood has reaffirmed to me it is the permanence of a soul.

Bodies may be created and destroyed, but souls certainly are not. As C.S. Lewis put it, "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." While I played a role in forming a fleshy tabernacle to house Ada's spirit, it was immediately apparent to me that her spirit is made of the eternal stuff.

I learned today that one of my close friend's mother's passed away a few days ago. As we chatted I told her that I believe in life too much to believe in death. People are just too vibrant to simply end.

Being a mother has also made me more firmly believe in the eternal nature of families. Not only do I want this relationship with my daughter and husband forever, but it makes so much sense to me that it won't end with death. This relationship is full of perpetuity. It has to be endless because it is so real. Motherhood (and wifehood) is one of the most real things I have ever experienced. It's experience made tangible.

My friend said that the experience of loosing her mother has been surreal. I can only imagine what it would be like. But I think that the reason why death feels so strange is because a large part of us knows that death is what is temporary and life is what goes on. It seems counter-intuitive. But I believe it's true. Death is unnatural because we talk to, live with and love eternal beings. And we know it.

Christ conquered death. He rose, and was resurrected. Because he lives, we can too. This is true. This fact has brought me light and peace when I felt surrounded by an impenetrably dark silence.

We will all live (and be together) again, and that “same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there [in eternity], only it will be coupled with eternal glory."