The Savor Of A Life Well Spent

Is there anything more sobering than death? Why so morbid Gordon? What's up? These are the things I'm thinking on: death and eternity. Technically, sleep may be a better term for death. I say this because Jesus equated death to sleep, right before raising Lazarus to life. But, wasn't he really dead? Yes, of course, so much so, that decomposition was already at work.

Why? Why am I talking or thinking like this? It's simple, in just a few hours it will be a one year death anniversary of a beloved pastor and friend of mine: Ed Simmons.

Now Ed is in a place with no more pain. Ed is in a place without sorrow. Ed is in a place that Jesus built just for people like Ed. Ed is in Heaven, his flesh went the way of all flesh. His flesh vanished in the vapor called life. Awe! Heaven... you got the jump Ed, but I'll see you soon.

Ed's body may sleep in the dust of the earth, this is true. Yet, the Ed I know and love is at home with Jesus. Still I miss him. For now I know he is in that great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12) cheering us on. Ed, though gone, is doing what he always did. He is preaching and teaching in his soft gentile way through our thoughts, memories, compact discs and first and foremost, through his family. Ed could be proud of the way the little body of Christ in the foothills is thriving in Christ. Ed could be proud, but he wouldn't be. Because Ed knows his service was but a gift from the giver of all good gifts. Thanks Ed, for loving Jesus!