Ecclesiastes 9:12

Moreover,no man knows when his hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.

This past week a sister in Christ passed from us to join those that have gone before  her.  The end of her life here on earth was rather sudden, and at least from my perspective, quite unexpected.

It reminds me that, like many products on the store shelves, we all have an expiration date.  Unlike those products, we don’t have a label that identifies just when that is.

The words from Ecclesiastes seem to echo throughout the centuries as we all seem to live in “evil times”.  Our time now seems to be focused on terrorism and those who have been caught in the terrorist’s actions were caught up as if in the fish net or bird snare.  Their life cut short by an expiration date they did not see coming.  From a distance we see these evil events unfold before our eyes on the television screen, and we think what an evil time we live in.  As have how many over the generations?

When it gets close to us, such as one of our own, one of our family, perhaps our closest friend and loved one, it doesn’t seem like evil times, but more like a personal visit from the Evil One and we have suffered defeat.

Through Christ however, we have not been defeated and we have not lost.  Though we hurt and mourn the loss, we also share in the hope and promise and knowledge of eternal life with our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Godspeed my friend.