Advanced Reservations Required
I was shocked by the news that “Flo-Jo,” Florence Griffith Joyner died of a heart seizure on September 21, 1998 at the age of 38. Just ten years before, at the 1988 Olympic Games at Seoul, Korea, she won the gold medal in the 100 and 200 meter race and in the 4x100 meter relay. How can an Olympic athlete die at such a young age with a disease that is associated with a sedentary lifestyle? I don’t know. The only answer I can give you is that we will all die.
It is much easier for me to bury someone after they’ve lived a rich, full life than if they die unexpectedly. Those services are usually a mixture of sadness that we’ve lost loved ones, and happiness that they’ve gone on to their reward.
Burying babies is the hardest. Last year I conducted a funeral for a baby who died from suffocation. The father laid the baby down on a water bed to sleep. During the nap, he rolled over and was trapped between the mattress and the side of the bed. I couldn’t make it through the service without breaking down. The pain was overwhelming.
One thing is for sure, from the moment we are born, we are old enough to die. Unless Jesus returns in our lifetime, none of us will escape death. The scripture says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” (Hebrews 9:27)
Life is fragile and precious.
Eternal life in Heaven is a promise Jesus made to His believers. It is available, without cost, but advanced reservations are required.
Have you made your reservations? Are you helping others make theirs?
Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).
I was shocked by the news that “Flo-Jo,” Florence Griffith Joyner died of a heart seizure on September 21, 1998 at the age of 38. Just ten years before, at the 1988 Olympic Games at Seoul, Korea, she won the gold medal in the 100 and 200 meter race and in the 4x100 meter relay. How can an Olympic athlete die at such a young age with a disease that is associated with a sedentary lifestyle? I don’t know. The only answer I can give you is that we will all die.
It is much easier for me to bury someone after they’ve lived a rich, full life than if they die unexpectedly. Those services are usually a mixture of sadness that we’ve lost loved ones, and happiness that they’ve gone on to their reward.
Burying babies is the hardest. Last year I conducted a funeral for a baby who died from suffocation. The father laid the baby down on a water bed to sleep. During the nap, he rolled over and was trapped between the mattress and the side of the bed. I couldn’t make it through the service without breaking down. The pain was overwhelming.
One thing is for sure, from the moment we are born, we are old enough to die. Unless Jesus returns in our lifetime, none of us will escape death. The scripture says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” (Hebrews 9:27)
Life is fragile and precious.
Eternal life in Heaven is a promise Jesus made to His believers. It is available, without cost, but advanced reservations are required.
Have you made your reservations? Are you helping others make theirs?
Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).
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