loss + gain

So many old years ago, you gained a new life. We lost a husband,
a father, a brother, a fellow believer, a hero, a comforter, a biggest-fan, a friend.

You claimed the instant victory won for you by the One we both serve and follow.
We await that victory with each slow-moving day and fast-moving year.

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You serve Him in eternity.
We follow Him in this short, temporary, beautiful, painful span of time called life.

The Life you gained is eternal, golden, peaceful, in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.
We live out our fragile days in this momentary world, shaken by the unknown.

We see His Hand in sunsets with strands of Gold. You see Him, and walk with Him in Golden Thrones.

You were taken up, your purpose on earth finished, gaining your crown.
Our time with you was done, but we still feel the deep loss, these long-short decades later.

We look to that reunion-day with hope and courage, tippy-toe-expectation,
Wanting so much to see what you see, wanting to walk with you, wanting your touch,
Wanting your encouraging words.

Our wanting is our loss, only to be fulfilled on the Day we join you.
We look to your eternal gain, through our small days,
Embracing the loss, knowing that it speaks loudly to our future gain.

Remembering

“…they died with the faith that the future of all mankind would benefit by their sacrifice.” From a WWI memorial near the Wellington Arch in London. These words caught me when we were at the monument, and as I was going through the pictures from my trip, they caught me again.

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so great a cloud of witnesses

Like Kelly, I was also impacted by last Sunday’s sermon on Hebrews 12:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

I was recently in Oxford, England and went to the Eagle and Child pub. C.S. Lewis is part of the “great cloud of witnesses” for me in my walk of faith and run of endurance. He has had a huge impact on my faith and my Christianity. It was a blessing to go sit in a place where this man spent time and be reminded that this man really lived and breathed and had faith in the same God that I do. My faith has been strengthened by seeing this place. It is something tangible to look back on, when it seems like so much of our faith is based on things we do not see.

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Courage and Honor


An email from my dad… about my grandpa who is currently in the hospital recovering from surgery on a broken ankle. Love you Grandpa.

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In the background, a nondescript European hillside and to the discriminating eye, the tracks of a U.S. Army half-track…an M-3, I think. On the slope below, two happy young men. That’s dad on the left…smiling sixty three years ago on May 8th, 1945—the day Germany formally surrendered.

God bless him.

g.