On February 3, 2014, my beautiful daughter Jessica went home to be with Jesus. She valiantly fought leukemia for the past 5 years. She left a gaping hole that only God can fill.
We don’t always
understand why God allows certain things to occur, but
whatever happens we know that we can trust Him. One good thing is she no longer
has to suffer. Through Jessica’s death, the Lord gave me the opportunity to
share the gospel and he used to occasion to restore some strained
relationships.
Death is an unwelcome
intruder. It’s like an alien invader. When God created the first man and woman, they were
made to be immortal. Death wasn’t part of the equation. They had been warned
not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because that would
bring death in the world.
The serpent deceived
them into believing that God was holding out on them (same tactic he uses
today). They fell into Satan’s snare and the world was cursed with the plague of
death.
The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength
eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly
away. So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Psalm
90
It is wise to live in
light of the fact, life is short.
Whenever I perform a
funeral, I am reminded again of the brevity of our time here on earth. Death
has a way of putting things into perspective. It forces us to think about our
own mortality. When
you’re young time seems to move so slowly and as we grow older, time seems to
fly by. When I was young, 70 or 80 years seemed like an eternity but these days
70 doesn’t seem that far away. And here’s the thing, you don’t even know if you’ll
make it to 70. Jessica was only 28 years old.
Seniors die,
adults die, teens die, children die, even babies die. You don’t expect to bury your
children, but it happens. We never know when that unwelcome intruder will come.
“There is
a time appointed unto man to die, and after death comes judgment.” Hebrews 9:27.
That’s one appointment
that you won’t break and you don’t know when your day will come.
O Lord, make me know my
end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold,
you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before
you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Psalm 39:4-5
We need to prepare to
meet God so that whenever that appointment with death comes we are ready to
meet him. Only you can honestly answer this question, "Are you ready to meet Him?"
