I Lost a Good Friend this Week.
The plain reality of life on this planet is this-where there is life,there comes death.
There is no escaping this reality.
I lost a friend this week.
He was my age-61.
Although I am a believer, I am still numb.
It was his eldest son that told me his Dad was dead,
I was unable to attend his Dad’s funeral. I did write him a poem.
Max was not just any friend. He was a high school friend. However, I have not spoken to him for probably twelve months or more. I remember when I lost my Mum at the end of 2017 near Christmas, I did not reach out to him then. The next few months were simply a blur. Losing a parent is one of the hardest things in life I have ever experienced. Now I empathize with his two sons who need to travel that same road.
I wonder how your wife will cope, Max. You were in that strange transition when the kids had left home, and you had parted ways. What unresolved issues there may be? I will seek to be sensitive to her in the coming days. There will be many questions, many tears, and much soul searching.
I have been writing my reflections on Psalm 9 this week for Medium. I will finish that assignment. I am already finding nourishment for my soul in David’s prayer there. What is it about the Psalms that can encourage us in the depths of sorrow?
And I think on prayer, and the mystery of it. It is one of the few activities of life which link our life to a life beyond the world we see and touch every day. It’s a world we often do not give adequate attention to.
I know as I took the elements of bread and wine this morning, I remembered you. It was a spiritual reminder of the things of faith, that in Christ, there is life for our spirits with God- a life that starts here and now, but only knows its fulfilment beyond the grave.
I remember you, my friend. Death is not the end. Paul the apostle was able to encourage the church at Corinth with these words:
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” (2 Corinthians 5:1 NIV)
Max, may you find peace and happiness in the place God has prepared for you.
It was a privilege to have you as my friend.
