“When People Die”

“When People Die”

In Bama where I come from,

And a life comes to an end,

It’s a time for us to gather,

With family and friend.

We hold onto each other,

We pray and shed our tears,

We talk a lot of heaven,

And calm each other’s fears.

We try to bring some comfort,

We eat good comfort food,

We answer texts and phone calls,

And try not to be rude,

When people get too nosy,

Or want to know too much,

Or won’t just leave and go on home,

Talk on and on and such.

But that’s ‘cause death is scary,

And shocking when it comes,

And people do the best they can,

When their loved one succumbs,

To what is going to happen,

To all there in the end,

And in our hearts we know it,

Cannot otherwise pretend.

And then all the food is eaten,

The music, words, and prayers,

All become a memory,

And no one is left there.

’Cause we go on with living,

It’s what we’re s’posed to do,

And know God is still giving,

His grace to see us through.

But, Lord, help us remember,

As we go on our way,

That our time is fleeting,

And Your gift is each new day.

Until the final sunset,

And our days on earth are through,

And then take us to heaven,

Forever be with You.

”All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be…” (Psalm 139:16, NIV)

We believe God has a plan for our lives. This psalm says God knows us intimately from conception, and is with us every moment till our earthly lives end. It is important not only to acknowledge His plan, but to cooperate with it. How? To continually ask Him to lead us. The psalm ends with this prayer: lead me in the way everlasting. This happens when the eternal leads the temporal and heaven happens on the way to heaven, in spite of the hell we have to face. It’s the best way to live, and to die…

Lord, lead us, in Jesus’ name.