The Cracked Acorn: Gone

Don’t you hate it when a friend, relative, Christian, or anyone you may know at work or church says a person is gone or, as we say,”‘passed away!”

After an outside project, I came into the house, had a snack, relaxed on the couch, and watched some News.

A large military airplane was sitting on the field at Andrews AFB. The rear ramp was down, and six uniformed personnel were slowly bringing out a flag-draped casket.

The lady TV narrator said, ” He is gone, left his loved ones and  us behind!”

At my age, I have seen that similar process happen many times, it is shared by all of us.

If I am in a spot where I can look out the window, it seems to help. Why? I cannot know; I just do it, and the world fills the gap.

In the movie ROTTEN TOMATOES, she sees a friend in the nursing home.

She goes to a window and looks outside, but when she returns to her friend’s bedside, she finds that her friend has passed.

Ellen Fristoe – gone and left us behind. She attended church faithfully, thought to have a long recovery from pneumonia, stepped out the door, and collapsed.

I asked a fellow worker about the Army if he had pulled the pin from a grenade. Yes! When you pull that pin, Mr. GRENADE is no longer your friend. In three seconds, you had better be on the ground with your face in the dirt. Life (grenade) is our companion. The time will come when all things stop.

The end for “if I only had.”

That is why we come to church: to sing, pray, and gather around the Table to study God’s Word.

We will try to keep Ellen alive, but it will be hard.

(If you rush to climb Mt. Everest, don’t linger more than 45 seconds at the top…more than 120 bodies are buried in the ice.)