A couple of weeks ago one of my best friends died. About 10 years earlier he had had a massive heart attack and almost died. I was in Springfield IL for several days with the family while they watched him pull through open heart surgery. Doctors told him he only had about 20-25% of heart capacity afterwards but he continued to lead a productive life and had the privilege of seeing his family grow.
We never really chose to be friends. We had both been born in PA and our parents were acquaintances when we were babies but moved to different areas of the country when we were young boys. We began to be together when we married cousins who were best friends, but my wife and I lived in MI and they chose to live in AZ for their early married years. He got involved in prison ministry and began to build a halfway center for guys coming out of prison. That was when our friendship began to grow. Our family, also church friends, began to make trips to AZ to help with the project and our time together caused us to become close.
For our 25th anniversaries we took a trip to Grenada which we thoroughly enjoyed- even the critters and creeping things! (Ask my wife about the glass top coffee table that didn’t quite hold her up) We were making plans to do something special for our 40th this coming winter. (which we had in June and they were a few weeks from attaining)
There is no “good” time to die.
As we have seen a large number of deaths in our community in the last few weeks i have realized there is not a convenient time to die. All kinds of plans are interrupted or gone because of death. Life as we know it is forever altered in one last breath.
I am so thankful that our Lord Jesus has taken the sting of death (sin) and in His own blood shed on Calvary washed us so that we can be free and forever with Him. Let’s live life to the max in Him so we are ready to die when our time comes.