Goodbye

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Today's memorial service for an 83-year old friend inspires a few questions:

* Will 500 people say goodbye when off I fly? 50? 5?

* Will there be tears both of sorrow and joy?

* Will praise tell the truth or ruin the truth?

* Will people see their need for forgiveness of sins?

* Will God receive the glory?

* Will it be soon?

Life's brevity demands answers to the deepest questions. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going?

In my atheist years the answers were seemingly safe --- I am a speck in the universe --- I am here by a random chance gathering of molecules for no particular reason above struggling to exist --- I am going nowhere when I die. Consciousness ceases, and the blip that I once was on the radar screen of life is formless, forever gone and forgotten.

In my God awakened years the answers are real --- I am an eternal being in a sin-infested, dying body --- I am here to give all praise, honor, glory and trust to God who created me and adopted me --- I am going to see Him face to face when this body of death is replaced with a spiritual body and enjoy His presence forever.

God holds the key. His Word is truth. His only begotten, sinless Son paid for sins. God-given faith turns the key. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16