Like an unfinished symphony is the sudden, untimely death of one's life partner. There is no grand finale.

In the hope of finding completeness, one's memory repeats the beautiful music of the life that was. But each time the symphony is played, it ends abruptly as before, and the last chord echos through the silent emptiness. Something inside wants to find the missing pages, but there are no more pages.

All around are reminders of how unpredictable and fragile life is; a list of tasks that remain uncompleted, a pile of unanswered letters, some untried recipes cut from magazines, travel brochures that shaped a dream.

Left behind are reminders that we live in a broken world, an unpredictable world, a world we cannot control.

Yet God, in His grace, gives us perspective, and we remember that the unfinished tasks of this life matter little in eternity. What matters is that the Lord completed His perfect work in the one He took home... and in some way, continues the symphony through our lives.