Ends

Sensing one’s mortality doesn’t have to be a negative.  Death, an end of ends to this life, is a part of the cycle of life.  This life has a beginning, a middle with lots of different phases, and an end.  As I reflect on what is to come I find myself sharing the dream.  The dream is anchored in the lives of our fathers, their fathers, and back through the generations across the centuries.  “God's Message for the family of Jacob, the same God who redeemed Abraham: ‘No longer will Jacob hang his head in shame, no longer grow gaunt and pale with waiting.  For he's going to see his children, my personal gift to him—lots of children.  And these children will honor me by living holy lives.  In holy worship they'll honor the Holy One of Jacob and stand in holy awe of the God of Israel.”  (Isaiah 29.22, 23) 
 
It would be easy to blame any deviation from the dream on God or others.  After all, God made the promise.  My perspectives changes as I look at my relationship with my parents.  Are my choices God’s fault?  Have I given up my freedom to others?  No, adamantly!  I hold God’s gift of freedom with everything I am – hands, heart, and soul.  What happens next is driven by my choices, actions, and decisions.
 
There is something that gives me comfort as a father and confidence as a son, brother, and friend.  God’s desire, passionate, intense, and unending, is for you, me, and everyone to experience the full benefits of a community and life defined by love, compassion, and unconditional acceptance.  God’s promise is that he will never leave us, and even more importantly, never leave our children.  God loves them as he does us.
 
God also promises that each generation and individual will have an opportunity (at least one) to experience the beauty, wonder, and awe that is Divinity.  In a world filled with tragedy, pain, and death, this seems hard to believe.  Discoveries are here, waiting for us to see, hear, and feel.