Over the weekend, I heard of the passing of another childhood acquaintance. It is to be expected that as we age, people die. That's one of the fundamental laws of nature so to speak; penned so eloquently by the write of Ecclesiastes so many years ago. "To every thing there is a season...a time to be born and a time to die". As children we prayed the prayer..."now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep...and if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take".
I am sure that if I sat here long enough and thought back on all of the folks that I have known over the years, the sting of Death has touched all in some way or another. My first encounter was probably the death of one of my great-grandparents on my mom's side of the family; probably Great Grandpa Dendy. I was probably 3 when he died and was closer to five or six when my Great-Grandma Dendy passed in 1960. They were old, they were supposed to have that "foot in the grave" so-to-speak. Through the years, I have experienced the sting through the loss of friends who passed way before their time. Those losses and the loss fo a child are the hardest for
My spiritual orientation teaches me that there is an after-life and that those who profess Jesus as the Son of God will reach that after-life. Other religions have their own interpretation of the after-life. The Scriptures tell us of a New Jerusalem where there will mansions prepared for us. We call that the Blessed Hope...that one day when this life is over, we will go to that place that is prepared for us. It is my hope that this is the case; for I don't really want to come back and do this thing called life again. I like the idea of in the "Sweet Bye and Bye, we will meet on that beautiful shore..." Then again, I have never been one for opulence; a little cabin overlooking a crystal brook will be fime with me.
