Goodbye, My Friend

He will swallow up death forever.

The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces;

He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth.

The Lord has spoken!

Isaiah 25:8

I lost a friend last night – a wonderful, godly man whose passing was so sudden and unexpected that it took my breath away.  His wife is in my choir, and I was just over at their beautiful home a week or so ago, borrowing a rototiller for some heavy-duty jobs in my landscape.  He looked the picture of health for a man in his mid-eighties. 

My friend was a dedicated volunteer at the elementary school across the street from the church.  Week after week he would work in the classroom, helping his little friends to learn their numbers and words, planting seeds (his latest project), supporting the teacher, and becoming a surrogate grandfather to several classrooms of children who came to adore him.

I have rarely met another man or woman who lived their life in such a way that they were ready to meet their Maker at any moment.  He was a joyous disciple of Christ – a man with a huge smile, a twinkle in his eye, and an armful of garden produce to share with anyone and everyone.  He will be greatly missed by his wife, his children, his school children, and his church family – all of whom have basked in his love and grown from his leadership and love.  Please keep his wife and family in your thoughts and prayers.

Listen, I tell you a mystery:

We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed –

in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable,

and we will be changed.

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable,

and the mortal with immortality,

then the saying that is written will come true:

Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?

1 Corinthians 15:51-54 [NIV]