October 14, 2013
The Voice
In an Associated Press article Tom Coyne
reported on an Indiana family who lost their 19-year-old daughter in a car
accident in 2008 and for the last five years they have paid the cell phone bill
so they could listen to their daughter’s voice mail greeting. Unfortunately, in
a routine upgrade the service provider deleted the greeting and the family is
once again grieving because of the loss of their daughter’s voice. I can
picture the disciples in the same state of grief knowing they would never again
hear the Lord’s voice. However, Jesus told them, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev 3:20
NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----It is extraordinarily difficult to break away from self orientation. I relate to these people who want to keep their daughter’s voice clip for the stimulation of their own emotions. But if you think about it, Jesus’ voice rings out in her life and death. Certainly, her family only had nineteen years of her life to enjoy. But in every one of those years, especially the first few, there were golden moments of goodness and kindness she expressed into the family. Those moments built more than just memories. They had subtle effects, however minute, on each person’s way of thinking and feeling.
-----Maybe I have a special gift; I don’t know; but I can see the effects loved and admired people have made upon my tendencies to think and feel in certain ways. And I keep those particular tendencies tagged with mental placards, memorializing from whom they came, and safeguarded from any disappearance. It isn’t that I think this is the way we have eternal life in the hearts of those who loved us - a ridiculously idiotic proposition. It is the way I fellowship with who is not physically present, well, at least fellowship on my end. Participating in the good of one another is very much a whisper from the Lord.
-----Then, in as much as that might be all the enjoyment of a loved one I could have who is not currently in my presence, a truth rings out loud and clear. In the final sum of all things temporal, there is ultimate aloneness if there must be only physical stimulation, that is the sight, sounds, smells, and touches of another person, before that person‘s existence can be realized. When I turn from what makes most of my consciousness, all this physical stimulus, to spiritual truths, I realize the dead are not ended. They are gone to a different room. It is no different, from my perspective, than they’re being in a different country, albeit, a trip with a one way ticket. From there their realities beckon to me the most fundamental reality of this life: I will die, too, get ready. Holding the effects of others preciously in your heart is a link in the longer chain of preparedness.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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