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Sarah is such an important individual in all of the Bible, as the mother of Isaac and the family line of the Messiah. but also this along with other reasons why she's important as a role modern of a Christian woman. The book of Hebrews makes that very clear, and First Peter Chapter 3 describes her as a role modern for Christian woman  A description of her in that way is not very popular with some in recent times.

Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewellery or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear”.

(1 Peter 3: 1-6)

Now that, upon first reading may appear like a passage that doesn’t stack up well against todays thinking. In first Peter what a lot of people overlook is the fact is writing to wives who are married to unbelievers and telling them how they can have an impact on their unbelieving husbands. What he says in essence is don't preach to them, It's assuming that their husbands at some point have already heard the gospel, so don't harass or badger them. Sarah is mentioned in this passage in this manner of a women who trusted God and made themselves appear beautiful by submitting to their husbands in this regard. Back in the main text of Genesis Ch 23

“Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her”.

(Gen 23: 1-2)

The opening of this chapter simply tells us in verse 2, “that she died, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her”. I said this passage tells us three things that Abraham, The first is he came to mourn, and he wept for her. That's an interesting way to say this he came to mourn. That implies that he wasn't there when she died, het might have been out in the field he might have been in some other town so when he came back, he found out that she had died and that is when he began to mourn. Also, if that's the case and it seems to be from the text then that implies that she did not die of a long terminal illness it seems to imply that it was sudden and that it wasn't as a result of some prolonged illness because if that were the case, he probably would have stayed with her.

I just want you to look at the latter part of verse two he came to mourn, and he came to weep the Hebrew word means to lament to mourn but one author suggests that this word includes talking. Which I found very interesting he talked about her, and he wept. So, Sarah dies, and the first thing Abraham did was grieve. When those who we love die what we need to do is grieve. Now that is a huge subject everybody has their own way of grieving every society has its way of grieving somebody's death and every individual within our culture has their own way of doing it. Having said that throwing out as a disclaimer let me also say that it's very healthy normal and natural to cry. You might even say it's a good thing. It’s normal and natural to cry that's a good thing Paul says in first Thessalonians when he says Christians “grieve but not as others who have no hope”. Just because we as Christians have hope of a future in heaven with the Lord doesn't mean that we don't grieve, and it doesn't mean that we don't cry. Notice the text says he wept. This grown man broke down and sobbed over the loss of his wife that I submit to you is a very natural normal healthy way to handle bereavement. But if the word mourn involves talking maybe we should say it's a good idea to talk. I think it's good that you talk, particularly when sharing with close Christian friends. We all need to talk to express our feelings and get it out get the emotion out. Some time ago I did a course with the open university about death and dying and how to help families who are going through that trauma. I found the stages of the grieving process they identified there were very helpful and kind of back up what it says here in Genesis. I shall unpack all of that a little more in the next episode.