Dear Readers,

Just so you know, this isn't the final chapter. There's one last one to come later tonight.

Best regards from a Bookworm and God Bless,

Miss Pookamonga ;-P

XIV.

The Fourteenth Station: Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb

"…faith is the substance of things to be hoped for…"

—Hebrews 11:1

Edmund and Rosa laid were the last to step up to Aunt Nancy's casket and place their roses gently upon it. It was time to finally say goodbye, they knew, the grief weighing down upon them with its heavy burden. Aunt Nancy had been a stronghold in their lives since before they had been born, and to finally have to release her into the hands of God, to bury her below the ground and wait for their joyful reunion was almost too much to ask of them. Yet the siblings knew that they had to do it, to move on, because it was the only way they could remain sane, it was the only way they could truly live up to their beloved aunt's memory.

"Let us pray for our dearly departed Nancy, that the Lord God may keep watch over her soul," the priest prayed solemnly as the cool breeze drifted past them, carrying with it their final wishes for their loved one.

"Amen," everyone replied, some still trembling with tears.

Edmund and Rosa had already cried too much. The wake and the funeral had been so much for them to handle that they had already spent all the tears within them and could cry no more. A sense of peace and simple acceptance had begun to fall over them, the tears of initial shock and painful sorrow having now become a thing of the past. It was time to move on, to press forward, they told themselves. There was no need to cry now.

So as they watched their aunt's body being lowered into the ground, the called their last goodbyes and blew their last kisses of love before turning away and walking forward into the life that lay ahead of them.

They laid His wrapped body upon the slab of stone, whispering their final prayers and processing solemnly out into the garden.

Joseph was the last to exit, his head bowed low and his eyes brimming with the last tears he could cry for his friend. It was finally time to let go, to say farewell to the man who had meant more to them than they could ever dream to express in words. Joseph felt a strong resistance tugging at him, wrestling him away from bidding his beloved friend goodbye, but in his heart he knew that it was the only thing that he could do. To dwell upon Jesus' death would only bring more sorrow, and Joseph knew that He would not want anyone to weep for him much longer. He had always said that this was what he had been sent to do, although Joseph couldn't understand why. So they needed to accept everything as it was, to pay their final respects and move on, forever keeping the love of their friend in their memory.

Joseph exhaled a quivering sigh of surrender as he turned and took one final glance inside the tomb. He half-expected Jesus to suddenly come walking out laughing, saying that this had all been a terrible nightmare and that all Joseph needed to do was rub his eyes and wake up, and then everything would be all right again. But the deceit of the mind was a cruel one, and Joseph knew that it was finished. It was over and his friend was gone, never to open His eyes and breathe in the air around Him ever again.

So Joseph, Nicodemus, John, and the soldier called Longinus stepped gravely up to the stone, and, with a great heave of effort, they rolled it over the opening, finally sealing His lifeless body away forever.

They could only hope that one day, something good would come of this.