So sorry Mark for your loss … I understand your hurt as I have lost both parents and my younger brother last year … the pain can be horrible at times like this … but grief is the price we all pay for the loss of one that we loved and it is no different with your father. Our hearts are broken but not without hope for there is one who discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. Our Lord, Messiah Yeshua, Jesus Christ who knows all, hears all, sees all and whose mercy exists for all.
I have a simple belief that has always helped me get through times like this with my parents and brother and through a world of pain and death in a infantry platoon in Vietnam 50 years ago ... and maybe it will help you also. You see, I have always believed that this world is simply the outer shell of something much more vast, much more complicated, much more significant than anything we can understand with our five senses. Yes there is physical death, but death means annhilation and I do not believe that annhilation occurs with the souls of men. I believe that life is eternal … and love is immortal … and death is merely a horizon … and a horizon is simply the limit of our sight. Soooo if death is only a horizon, and love never dies, and life is eternal then good-bye is not forever. Good-bye is not the end, it simply means I'll miss you until we meet again.
Heavenly Father, When our souls take flight may they rise swiftly to live forever in your love and care. Life is your gift to us, what we do with that life is our gift to you. If we had only been given one day of life, it would have been generous. If we had only been given one storm that left us unharmed, it would have been generous. If we had only been given one moments pride in the success of all that we had attempted to accomplish on this planet, it would have been generous. But Dear Lord, Mark has been given time and life, joy and sorrow, sunshine and storms, laughter and tears, gifts to share and days to remember of the wonderful choice You made for his father. May he, in gratitude, give back to Life what he so generously received from the Giver of Life.
Mark, May the Lord bless and keep you,
May the Lord make His face to shine upon you
And be gracious to you
May He lift up His countenance upon you
And give you peace
Shalom, my friend ... Shalom
