I grew up in a family of four boys and I was the oldest. My dear sister was born when I was sixteen years old. In the summers, us boys lived outdoors. We went out in the morning and didn’t come home until dark. We were afraid to come inside because mom might have work for us to do. So, at lunchtime, we ate a tomato out of the garden or sliced a cucumber … with the same pocketknife that we skinned squirrels with. I loved climbing trees and would try to go from one tree to another without going back to the ground. If I would go high enough, where the tree was thin and limber, I could swing out and cause the tree to lean over to a nearby one and transfer from one tree to another. The old Tarzan movies might have had something to do with my tree-climbing interests. So, one day we were enjoying our creative tree climbing when my brother, two years younger than me, attempted a risky move. He lost his grip, fell about twenty feet, and landed squarely on his back. Phillip didn’t move, and I thought he was dead! I shinnied down the tree as fast as I could. But then I heard him gasp. He had the wind knocked out of his lungs, and he was gasping to get his breath. He was shaken, but otherwise, just fine. After sixty years, I still have that moment burned into my memory. Hey, we all fear death. That is because death is so final. We can’t make amends or ask forgiveness of anyone after death. The mind shuts down, the soul leaves the body, and nothing matters. But, if we have trusted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will live again! Oh, we still fear death, but death, for the Christian, is not final. Death is only the door that opens into eternity. Paul said in I Corinthians 15:55, :O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” We mourn at funerals, but we do not mourn as those who have no hope. Our hope is in Jesus Christ and in the coming resurrection told of in I Corinthians 15 and I Thessalonians 4. Hey, read about it and decide for Christ. Decide before it’s too late.
No comments:
Post a Comment