I sent out a ministry update letter, which opened with the good report on my knee replacement surgery. Then I included what I called “perspective.” In addition to reporting the death of my friend Crusher Craigie, which readers of this blog are well aware of, I included this short paragraph:

Among other close friends, we have one at home recovering from August 6 brain surgery, another undergoing chemo for Stage 4 lung cancer, and a high school classmate who just lost his wife to cancer and his sister to COVID on the same day.

People seemed to resonate with that. One friend reported that her husband is in hospice “ready when God calls.” She also reported on the 18-year-old daughter of a friend with a rare form of pediatric cancer. That’s got to be tough.

A Navigator colleague thanked me “for that great reminder never to take our health for granted.”

A friend here in our area wrote: “Like you, it seems so many of our friends are facing health challenges or crises.  Yes, our lives are very fragile, and we must be thankful for every day the Lord gives us.” 

I could go on. But I take comfort in the promise and the present reality of Revelation 21:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21.1 – 4, ESV. UNTIL the former things have passed away, there will be death, mourning, crying, and pain.)