EULOGY
#000 EULOGY
James Ewell Skinner
Scripture Revelation 14:13 Orig. 1989
The verse I have chosen is from Revelation 14:13. “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth, Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.” It is heaven’s rest from earth’s struggles, and one’s separation to an eternity of all things that are good. Interestingly, here called “our works”. So, ‘labors’ and ‘works’ mean two different things. We are day by day putting together what will sustain us, or tying ourselves to burdens we can’t get rid of.
Health, which Dad has chased fleetingly over most of these last years, is now his to enjoy. Happiness, which was his only intermittently, is a permanent fixture. And at last, he is truly, at home. God wills that all of us may cast aside those human frailties that demean us, and to take up the kind of character and lifestyle that will commend us forever.
I suppose that Calvin and Hobbes seems a strange illustration, but there they stood on the sidewalk. “We’re born at this crack, we die at that crack. We’re here, and in the process of walking out. Suddenly, we realize our time in here is fleeting. Does anything we say or do in here really matter? Have we done anything important? Have we been happy? Have we made the most of these precious few footsteps?” The two are then seen to be standing on the same square and dark has fallen.
Graciously, God allows us by faith, to leave behind all unpleasantness, and to take by instant recall, everything worthwhile that we have engaged in life. Calvin’s square is small, and our time inside is quickly over. Make the best of it.