Truly Missed

I don't know about you but I enjoy living this life the Lord has given me on this earth. I know that when this life is over I have a home in heaven; not by feelings or positive thinking but by what the Lord has told me in His word the Bible. But to be honest there are some things I truly miss from time to time. I have always had friends that were older than I and because of that I have seen some of them come to know the Lord as their Savior. There were some who knew the Lord and I learned much from them. I have watched some struggle with disease, I've witness others who outlived their wife. The knowledge that I have gain from my older friends is priceless. I have asked what was it like when Pearl Harbor was bombed? Tell me about the changes you have witness in our country? Just simple things I learned from watching and listening to them as they talked. I remember one of my dearest friends Alvin Honea; he was around 75 years old when he I became friends. I remember inviting him to Church 4 or 5 times before he ever came. He kept coming and one day he asked Jesus to come into his heart. I learned from him that just because things look impossible that doesn't mean they are. I remember I had some wood at the house that I could not split. He told me that he had a wood splitter; so we set a day to split the wood. Well that day came and he showed up with his splitter. We put the first log on it to split it and the splitter just would not do it; we tried another and the same thing it was just to tuff for his little splitter. I said "Mr. Honea thank you for trying to….." he stopped me and said this isn't a problem I have a friend that has a 25 ton splitter I'll call him. He did and he and I and a few more spend one Saturday splitting that wood. He was like that about everything. I remember one time I haven't heard from him so I went by his house to find he had just had open heart surgery. I said to him why didn't you tell me? He said well I started to, but it wasn't really anything to worry about. Before he died at the age of 82 he got cancer and went blind and never one time did he ever say anything but this isn't anything; he always overcame. He has been gone now since May of 2002 and I still miss him and would love just to go by one more time and spend some time with him. You can say the same about someone who was dear to you also. Somewhere, a soldier on the other side of the world longs for his family; I know how that feels. Somewhere, an 85-year old man, and his friends, longs for the old days; I'm getting very close to that. Somewhere, a woman struggling with disease, longs for her old self and grieves that her life will never be the same again. It's normal for people to long for those things they no longer can enjoy. The next time you have a longing for something beautiful like the company of a faraway friend, or wishing for a triple-scoop ice cream cone on a hot summer day, or dreaming of a wonderful moment from your past and wishing you could relive that moment once again, take a moment to reflect. Many of us love the gift of our earthly life! Most of us have enough quality of life here on this earth to want to continue living. Still, the Scriptures clearly convey that this world is not our home. We are only visiting here
for a time. We are to live this life with mission in mind: To love and serve God—and others. Matthew 20:28
Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.