As long as the earth continues ...

I started to write today about how great it was that the weather was getting warmer around my home and how the daffodils are coming up, but then I got some serious news. A friend of my wife's has cancer, and it has moved into his bones, and the docs are giving him about 6 weeks to live.

This guy's a pastor who has been in ministry for more than two decades. And he has helped numerous people, but he didn't help himself. See what happened was the cancer started in his prostate gland, and because he didn't get checked out, by the time they found it, it had moved to his bones. And now he's going to die.

Everyone has to face their mortality at one time or another. God knows there are guys in Iraq who do it every day. But this is someone I know. This is the guy who had been a surrogate father to my wife. And now he's dying - and I think too early. All because he didn't get it checked out!

I also thought how I won't stay here forever. One day, Gabriel will tap me on the shoulder and whisper "it's time." But this pastor and I share the same hope - as Christians we know this life is not all there is. There is a God, and He is crazy mad in love with us, and we will spend forever with him. But the happiness of that promise is mingled with the bitterness of those left behind.

So we are not caught in a land where it is "always winter and never Christmas;" the recent thaw reminds me of that. And the daffodils will bloom again, and the chill will leave the air and new life will begin again. But it might not be the same as last year. If you pray, pray for this guy. We'll just call him K. Thanks. David