My voice is even more understandable this morning. I thank you for praying for me during these past weeks.

I attended the funeral of a dear friend's Mom on Saturday. She was a precious, Godly woman and will be missed by all who knew her. She leaves a legacy and a heritage of Godliness and goodness for her family and that is such a blessing.

The room was filled with family and friends and her pastor made a comment that has stayed with me ... we all have a date with death and are we as prepared as Virginia was for when that time comes? I've thought about those words often since Saturday and just last night the thought came to me that while Virginia is absent from our presence right now, she's not dead by any means. She is more alive at this moment than ever in her life.

She is in the presence of her King and her Lord and nothing bad shall ever touch her again. Her trials are over and she's truly free to be the person God intends for her to be. I told her daughter Nina that I could imagine the reunion taking place between her & Roy, and perhaps his saying to her "what took you so long?" Theirs was a relationship seldom seen in today's world and one we could learn much from. Roy's death was so sudden and unexpected and it was so difficult for the family to come to terms with. Virginia's home-going took longer and gave people adequate time to say "Good-bye for now, we'll see you again soon." And we will if we know Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

We all do have a date with death, unless the Lord returns for His bride first, we will all come face to face with something we know little about. Something we don't want to know about if we're honest with ourselves. What I'm seeing however, is that death is but the avenue that will take us Home to be with our Lord, and we need not fear it as the unsaved must fear it.

A former Pastor of ours, in explaining death to us, said this "Imagine you're a small child and you've spent the day with family on an outing. On the way home, you fall asleep in the back seat of your father's car. Rather than wake you, he carries you inside the house and puts you in your bed. When you awake in the morning, you're surprised to find you're home; but then you learn your Dad carried you while you slept. That, for the Christian, is what death is like. It simply carries us Home."

What wonders await us! What glories we'll behold! What blessings we have to open today!

My love to you all.