Jonah 4:6 And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. NKJV
Preparing For The Last Goodbyes & The Forever Hello's
As is my usual routine, I got up early this morning, acquiesced to the instant ablutions of a man in his late forties, put the kitchen light on, put some heavily caffeinated rich dark Columbian in the percolator in preparation for some later laxitivity, and sat down to write tonight’s 'Whisper'. The light from the kitchen shone in the surrounding darkness of this Kentucky hillside and drew ‘the boys’ from afar. ‘The boys’ as we call them are ‘Itsy and Bitsy’ two little gifts from God, meowing on the side of the road, found by my wife on her birthday some 18 months ago. Two dumped and orphaned ginger little tomcats. Two twitching-faced Davy Crocket hats, two foul wind machines, two sources of pest control, two mouse deliverers, two purring, warm and cozy, sources of comfort and caressing. Two little creatures curled at the bottom of the bed, two sets of bright eyes in the long night, two little sources of God’s comfort that turn up each morning, greet you with a smile, bite your feet to let you know you live today and wrap their warm and fuzzy tails around your cold morning calves, to let you know you're loved today! Yes, the boys, those two little ginger ‘Tom’s,’ those two little gifts from God, come banging at my early morning door, most each and every day.It is interesting how attached you get to little things. In our text for tonight, for that peculiar and pugnacious prophet called Jonah, it was a plant and a simple day plant at that! For me and for my wife, it is our cats, our furry substitutes for our missed children and two warm little distractions from the cold loneliness that such a missing generates. In a few days we shall return to our homeland, and leave these two little creatures behind. As the little ginger duet, crouching side by side, eat in unison from their full blue bowls, I think how much I will miss this furry morning routine. Then I thought to myself, “Man! If we ever have to leave them for good, that’s gonna be a hard one, especially for my wife.”
It’s amazing how misery can so easily leap upon a Celt. That last thought of mine allowed the cat of melancholia to come and curl up in my lap, look me in my eye and remind me that in this life, everything and everyone shall be said goodbye to. “The longer you live,” it said, “The more you shall say goodbye. Until at last they shall say goodbye to you.” It then relaxed and in the relaxing, it broke some very smelly and unwanted wind. It said, “You are going to die.” I said, “Thanks for the reminder.”
By now the coffee was beginning to take effect so I quickly grabbed that mangy little visitor by its scabby little neck and threw it out the window! It had said nothing new. No, I am aware of all that. I am a Pilgrim for goodness sake! En route to His Holy City, to my Hometown in my Homeland and in being a Pilgrim right now, I am therefore already preparing my goodbyes well in advance, but more than that, oh mangy and smelly melancholic little kitten, I am preparing my “Hello’s” and practicing my “How yer doing’s!”
How about you tonight? What hello's are you looking forward to after your final goodbye is said?
Listen: -
It was Alfred Lord Tennyson that wrote, ‘The Crossing of the Bar.’ It is a majestic piece and the last two lines read..
“I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.”
The Poem below is called “Bar One”
The term ‘bar one,’ means , ‘except one.’ This points to the terrible fact that all things pass and pass way. All that is, except Jesus and in Jesus, all that has passed and all who have passed, shall be seen together with Him and in Him. This is my great hope.
----------O----------
Over all crowns of glory
There drips a crown of thorns
And in each seasonal cup
Bubbles a groaning joy
And with every loving , bar one
There is a leaving
The morning brings a cloud of blue
At lunch a fluff of cotton white
And then to end each goodly day
A blue sky full of grey
And with every loving , bar one
There is a leaving
The pink of brand new flesh
The happiness and the joy
May yet become a memory
In the rebellion of the boy
And with every loving , bar one
There is a leaving
With every providence
There seems to be a persecution
No gain without a loss
No advance without a cost
And with every loving, bar one
There is a leaving
A life of growing
Of one flesh knowing
Of hope and dreams and prayerful sowing
Will leave one of us alone a while
Standing, looking down the clay walls on bright pine
For with every loving , bar one
There is a leaving----------O----------
1 Cor 15:50-52 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed-- in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. NKJV?
Pray:- Goodnight dear Lord, good night and goodbye my friends, goodbye, for tomorrow might I wake in the comfort of His sky. So, goodnight dear Lord, good night my King and goodbye my friends, goodbye, for tomorrow might I wake, in the comfort of His sky. Anon
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