the falling leaves

Imagine for a moment standing in the golden sun, the time frame is in the ’70’s… I see a girl, her blonde hair is softly blowing away from her face and on her head is a wreath of little flowers. She is wearing a soft cotton blouse, jeans and on her feet are, what we called, Clogs. Her smile is radiant, and her laugh is great… do you remember her? Three girls come to my mind as this picture comes to me, one left us long ago, a victim of cancer, her name is Lynn, one within the past two years, Martha (Marti) and the last, this past weekend, her name is Lynette, they were my friends. As I reminisced, I could see us all sitting in a circle on the floor, our Bibles open in front of us. We shared, we cried, we prayed and then we ate, and we laughed. I see other friends from that circle smiling at me that are now missing, Michael, Dan, Ricky. There are others just as dear, but those people are the ones in that particular time and circle of friends that are gone.

As I see the circle diminishing here on this planet, I know that they are gathering in heaven and becoming a part of our cloud of witnesses. That is a happy thought, we never know who will be the next one of us to join them.

My mind is like a blender sometimes and coming to the top right now is that losing these friends is in a way like the leaves that fall. The tree is full of green leaves, and it seems that overnight they have changed into beautiful colors and then they fall to the ground. Our bodies begin to age, I read this morning that we age from “the feet first”, and it seems that no amount of diet, exercise, Botox injections and fillers, makeup or hair dye can keep the process from happening. That is natural, but when your friends die of cancer, or bleed out because of stomach ulcers, or a heart attack when you are still “too young” to have to think about such things, it just seems so much worse.

We don’t know when our time will come, but I go to 1 Corinthians 15:19 which says, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

I know that Jesus conquered death, hell, and the grave and that when I go, whether it is in death from this life, or I get to see Jesus when He comes back to take us with Him to heaven, I will see my friends and loved ones and Jesus, face to face.

Live each day as if it were your last… God bless you.