Do You Remember?

I was checking e-mail today and I realized that today is the 42nd anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas. November 22, 1963 must have hit people in that generation like 9-11 did us. Kennedy represented so much to people then but his life was cut short.

I am not here to rave about who shot Kennedy - more learned and informed minds than mine have worked that subject for years. But his death did remind me of something - that God is the only one we can trust.

This is a reality that should make us both sober and joyful. When we look at all that we struggle to achieve or possess or maintain, none of it will really be ours eternally. If it exists in time and space, we have to leave it behind. God is the only one who endures, even though our loved ones and friends are also eternal spirits created by God, they ultimately belong to Him and not to us.

But this is also a source of hope, because the One who owns everything, even the life of a President, is kindly disposed toward us. John's gospel puts it simply - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." That should give us great reason for celebration, if we indeed know Him. If we do not, then we need to make that a priority.

Nothing - no business, no government, no family - is more important than knowing Christ. Much of our life is eaten by the demands of everyday - groceries, cars, plumbing problems, work, school, etc. But it all pales in comparison to knowing God.

Even in the midst of our current world situation, where young men and women die every day, where children starve, where natural disasters wipe all that people knew off the face of the earth, we can have peace through knowing Christ.

Choosing any other course leaves us with the futile end David warned against in the Psalms. "Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish."
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Images: "The Presidential Limousine." n.p. Online http://www.republiquelibre.org/cousture/JFK.HTM" [22 Nov 2005]

News Headline of Kennedy Assassination. Online: http://www.click-here-now.com/jfk/GEN0018.HTM"[22 Nov 2205]