By Dan Eakin
Most of us probably live from day to day mostly thinking about how to meet the physical and material needs of the day.
Sometimes we may go for days, weeks and maybe even months without giving much thought to the fact that we will one day die.
Usually when we hear of a plane crash, earthquake, flooding or another disaster overseas where a lot of people got killed, we feel a little sorrow but not much because we were not directly affected.
But when a loved one, a friend or even someone near us dies or was killed, we feel more sadness.
We’ve had a lot of sadness recently in the Whitesboro-Collinsville area.
A few months ago, a fine young man and his young daughter were killed in a car accident a few miles east of Whitesboro on Hwy 56.
Then last month, the father of three who had grown up in Whitesboro was killed in a head on collision on Hwy 82 near Sherman. In this week’s paper, there is an obituary of a beloved woman from Collinsville who had suffered with COVID for a long period of time in a hospital.
The death of a friend or a loved one reminds of at least three things.
Number one: The death of a friend or loved one reminds of of our own mortality. Somewhere in Deep East Texas there is a tombstone in a cemetery with a little poem on it: “Consider friend, as you pass by, as you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you must be, so be content to follow me.” Someone had taken a magic marker and printed underneath: “To follow you I am not content, till I find out which way you went.”
It was said a certain king of centuries ago hired a man to come and stand before him every day and call out, “O King! Thou shalt die!”
Number two: The death of a friend or a loved one reminds us of the uncertainty and brevity of life. The Bible says “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” Proverbs 27:1.
God has not promised any of us a tomorrow and any breath we breathe could be our last.
And as it its brevity, James 4:14 says, “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.”
Number three: The death of a friend or a loved one reminds of the hope of Heaven. The big question is, on what are we basing that hope. Many would answer, “I hope it’s because I’ve been good.” Many base their hope of heaven on their baptism, good works or their church membership. But the Bible says all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6
A wonderful old hymn says, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”
Still another says, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.” And another: “Nothing can for sin atone, nothing but the blood of Jesus; Naught of good that I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
The only true hope of Heaven comes when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and in his shed blood and ask him to forgive us and to save us. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13.
The death of a friend or a loved one, in one sense is a tragedy. But God can use it sometimes to wake us up to our own mortality, the uncertainty and brevity of life and to make sure we have the right reason to have the hope of Heaven.