Passages

Passages----Mine seemed pretty dark these past weeks and especially this week-end---- 

Life's journey is full of passages---from one season or event to the next.....until our final passage into the hereafter. 

Passing from one place to another can take on lots of meanings. Often baby boomers see aging as a passage----a prelude to their  "final" season or passage. Since December 14, I have had 7 friends or loved ones of friends enter eternity. A favorite aunt remains in hospice. 

Death is definitely a defining passage.  The life lived between the birth certificate and the death certificate identifies that final place. Knowing the Lord offers hope for one's eternal resting place and for those in the middle of the suffering it becomes a desired destination. From home to hospital to hospice to the arms of the God Himself. Those in "the shadow of death" are covered in grace and find peace as they pass over. They have the "foretaste of glory divine."

Those of us left behind are the ones who are grieving.

But God.....reminded me---be grateful for the life lived. Grateful for the end of their suffering. Grateful that our paths crossed. Grateful for the "blessed assurance" for these heirs of salvation.

DWD---no more......continued

6/18/11 "Dancing with Daddy, no more"--- from my blog notes taken on a yellow legal pad on 6/15/11, the day before Daddy died.

I stood looking down at his gray tennis shoes with the velcro straps---not the familiar white strings of his Nike walking shoes that he laced up for 33 years every day but Sunday. (No walking on Sunday---his own self-imposed rule.) I puddled.
I knew he would never wear shoes again, stand again, or dance with me again.
With that thought, I felt the tightening pain welling up in my throat and the back of my jaw---almost like a constricting burning sensation. It moved forward and began to consume me. The tears trickled. My nose dripped. I wept.

The memories spilled over. Stories mother told me of dancing with her Hoptown flame at Dunbar cave in Clarksville. Memories of Mother and Daddy going to the Elks club dances, never missing a New Year's Eve one. Mother and Daddy could really "cut a rug" as they did the jitterbug.
With the big band music of Benny Goodman or the crooning of old blue eyes. Frank Sinatra, my tall, stately parents, face to face, would glide together as one. In that front hall at 2211 where I had watched them dance, Daddy, with right arm at my waist and holding his left hand out for my right hand, placed me on the tops of his shoes and taught me to dance.

With all of these thoughts tumbling in my mind, I began to smile, especially when I recalled dancing with him just 2 years ago at my 45th high school reunion, though certainly Daddy's days were not much longer on this earth.

This kind, quiet, gentle man would dance with me no more. I had to let him go so he could dance with Jesus. I knew Mother and Allyson would be in line to tap on the shoulder and "cut in" for their spin on heaven's floor because nobody can dance like "my" Daddy.

To everything there is a season.....a time to be born, a time to die, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance; ( Ecclesiastes 3:1-4)

PS I might be weeping as I type but............ Daddy is dancing in heaven.

Meditation Morphing

10/11/10 Somehow when one realizes that she has more earthly years behind her than ahead of her, whole new perspectives are gleaned from scripture. The end is not scary when one knows her eternal destiny but the way one might enter that heavenly realm might give pause for thought. “Gentle entry” has a nice ring to it. Yet, I have been at the point where I was so present with the Lord and so filled with His grace, that no fears were present.

With all of that in mind, whatever your spiritual age or chronological age, think on this verse.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)