I haven’t been sleeping well at all. Ooh-ooh! See the doctor again on Monday! That’ll put me to rights. [Cue hysterical laughter]
Meanwhile, although it was way too brief, I finally had a pleasant dream last night in which I cuddled and comforted a quokka.
I don’t like hearing people discuss my looming extinction. I wouldn’t do it to them. You’d think this one doctor had just won the lottery. No, precious, we don’t like that at all! Ssss!
Most doctors are pretty decent, compassionate people, but I’ve met some who were anything but that.
I’m not all that favorably impressed by the nurses, either.
Some of them can be awful.
God sent you a quokka angel to comfort you.
Yes, I think He did.
Praying daily that by Jesus” stripes you are healed.
Thank you–amen.
I spent a bit of time the other day at the cemetery with a friend. Her husband died two months after Maribeth. We were visiting our spouses’ graves. Right “next door” was a new grave, a seventeen-year-old boy. It had a nicely designed marker, with a few pictures on the stone. His parents happened to visit just as we were looking at his gravestone. The father told us, he was killed by a drunk driver while riding his motorcycle.
Our first-born only lived 23 days. Maribeth had 44 years of life before she passed away. And me, I’m now 72.
Everyone’s extinction is looming. For some, their extinction will be sooner than others. Brother, your end will come when God calls you home, not a moment sooner. Just live the rest of your life, as if your time to meet God is years from now, it just might be. That’s my prayer for you, may your end come many years from now.
For those who love and serve the Lord, there will still be many trials and a great deal of pain. The just and unjust are equally susceptible to countless tribulations. In this regard, we are no different than Job, who struggled to understand God’s reasonings for the righteous to suffer so egregiously, through no fault of their own. Job lost everything—his health, wealth, his seven sons and three daughters. Only his wife survived, and she brought him no comfort, for when these calamities befell them, she lost her trust in God, and admonished him, “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9).
As I advance in years, the longer the list grows of those I know who became widows and widowers after many years of marriage. Others may have many years of life before their final day. No matter your age, you still have gifts to contribute, wisdom to bestow, love to share, and the Lord’s work to complete. And at the end of our life’s journey, be it long or short, we will once again see our loved ones, in a place where death, nor pain, nor sorrow exist, and God wipes away all tears.
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Ecclesiastes 12:13
Well said, brother.
Some years back, I had a conversation with a friend who was thinking about life, and the inevitability of death. At the time, he had a number of grandchildren and it struck him that even their time would come to its end. He spoke frankly about his beliefs, which are Christian, and acknowledged something, which is that the entire matter is beyond his control, and I might add, beyond any human’s control.
With that thought hanging in the air, the hope of salvation truly takes on exceptional significance as “good news”. While I exercise strenuously, and watch my weight, and while this helps in the short term, my only real hope is in the Good News, that Christ died to redeem us from sin and death. Linking back to the conversation I mentioned earlier, the Good News is the only game in town.
It’s either true, or it isn’t; but I believe it’s true. I believe it’s true because of what I can observe, in the world around me. Living in a desert, where water is scarce, but somehow teaming with beautiful life, such as abundant deer and some of the most beautiful birds I’ve ever seen. Where grass doesn’t grow, but there are hearty plants, like the Desert Broom which flourish and bring greenery to the desert landscape.
When I see tiny fawns, the size of cocker spaniels grow to become majestic deer, surviving against odds that are stacked against them, it proves to me that God Himself is seeing to the preservation of life. If He cares for these animals, He cares for us.
Jesus was executed and treated like a criminal, but in fact, conquered, in a mighty manner, because Jesus conquered that greatest enemy, death. God so greatly prizes the life He created that He gave His Son, to save all of us, if we simply accept this provision and live our lives accordingly.
At the end of the day, we choose where to place out confidence. The friend I spoke about earlier, had a moment of reflection and realized that there was but one hope. I reached a similar conclusion, when years ago, I realized that my works were all in vain without that hope. I’ll never achieve the wealth that was so alluring to me, as a young man. It’s unlikely that I’ll ever own a Mercedes, or a sprawling estate, or have a hit record, or come up with a technical innovation that makes me wealthy, but the secure hope of the Good News outweighs this.
Thank you for that; I needed it.
Glad that it helped. In the final analysis, we are all in the same boat, in as much as our only hope is in the saving power of Christ.