A good visitor.

“We are all just visitors here on earth. And JoJo was a good visitor,” she said in her heavy Ugandan accent as she stood during our last minute morning memorial service on the porch.

We were all there, crammed on the front porch...kids, staff, and friends....celebrating the life that had been taken away early that morning under the cool breeze.

“We are all visitors.” 

She sighs. clasps her hands together. and looks down.

“And JoJo was a good visitor.”

She sits as we soak in silence the words she just spoke. Words smothered in grace that came at just the perfect time, perfectly in tune with the heart of God.

We sang one last song as we stared at the tiny coffin before us. Still in shock of the morning events.

I was on the couch all night with another little man who’s been real sick. He was asleep and I was just drifting off into sleep at around 5 am.

And then I awoke to one of the night workers.

“Auntie. Auntie.”

They seemed calm but urgent at the same time. 

All three of the night workers, standing over me all in a blurr due to my sleepy eyes.

I sit up.

“Yes? What is it?”

“JoJo, he has died.”

Sure that they were just confused on their english, I asked them to repeat what they had just said. I had been in that bedroom just two hours before and JoJo was there completely fine and healthy and cute as ever.

He was totally okay. and alive.

They repeated, “JoJo, he has passed away. I am sorry.”

I stumbled into the bedroom he was in and the breath was taken away from me. My legs fell weak and were shaking.

To see a child and wait for him to breathe, and then he doesn’t.

The stillness quite surreal.

Not knowing what to do, and unable to make out any words, I ran to get Emily. 

And it went from there.

A life, taken away from the earth just like that.

With no sickness or warning sign.

She said there was no struggle, that it was almost as if the breath was literally peacefully taken from him. 

We sat in the room where he was prepared, and glanced over his still body in a coffin that seemed to small to be real.

We sat there while worship music literally blasted from our speakers.

There we were, those who have all loved JoJo as their own, singing and grieving over the loss of this guy.

Not sure of how to handle the shock, we just sang.

The sadness of it was looming over the house all morning.

And then she spoke, 

“JoJo was a good visitor.”

The words kept ringing in my head.

It’s almost as if the breeze was singing these words into my ears.

Into my soul.

“We are all visitors. And JoJo was a good visitor.”

And that just made perfect sense.

We can mourn death.

But we can’t rest in the sadness if we truly believe that we are but visitors here.

But how often do i hold SO tightly to the things on earth?

How often to i claim that I am in control?

Way too often.

And it was a blow to the face.

A humbling one, that I have no control over people’s days they are given to live.

JoJo could have been me.

Alive two hours before, and just like that, gone.

At first, it began to terrify me how fleeting it all is.

And to be honest, it still does.

But it challenged me.

How am i living my days and moments?

How am i loving others?

How am i choosing to live?

You see, JoJo chose to live simply.

He was given to this earth to remind us all of the beauty of living simply.

To simply love.

To simply live.

He never needed much, or asked for much except for a good hug.

He never really complained.

He always embraced who he was.

And he was gifted with his disabilities, I believe, to remind me of the simple.

So i encourage you to learn from this.

To not just be saddened, but encouraged and challenged.

To love.

To LIVE.

and to never forget the simple.

Days are fleeting.

And life is short.

So, what are you living for? Really....

What am I living for?

Because our time too, will soon be out.

And i too, desire for it to be said that I was a good visitor.

And i think that deep down, we all do.

“We are all just visitors here on earth.

And JoJo was a good visitor.”

Perfectly. Said.

Props to you little man for the time you spent here.

And thanks to God, for gifting the earth with Him.

And for giving me the past year to spend with him.

And thanks to God for his perfect timing. For his master plan, even amidst the ugliness of the world.

There is always thankfulness to be had.

And there is always a plan. Always.

So lets go for it.

One day at a time, be a good visitor.

http://vimeo.com/32978797 (copy this link into a browser to see a pretty amazing video made about JoJo about a year ago...)

much love :)