We had plans for Thanksgiving week but all of our plans were laid aside when we received the news that my only brother, my only sibling, had slipped away from us last Friday. He died suddenly from heart complications. He was a husband, a father, a grandfather, a brother, a brother-in-law, an uncle...and so many other things to so many people. He will be missed. We hadn't lived geographically close to each other for years, but he was there, within reach of the telephone, and now he's gone.
I've always loved the allegorical story of the man who boards a ship and as it sets out to sea those on the shoreline wave and tearfully say, "There he goes." But those on the other side of the water see the ship approaching and joyfully declare, "Here he comes!" I know my brother had a Savior, a mother and a dad as well as other loved ones to greet him. But we are left on this earthly shoreline to nurse the void left when he set sail.
I've always loved the allegorical story of the man who boards a ship and as it sets out to sea those on the shoreline wave and tearfully say, "There he goes." But those on the other side of the water see the ship approaching and joyfully declare, "Here he comes!" I know my brother had a Savior, a mother and a dad as well as other loved ones to greet him. But we are left on this earthly shoreline to nurse the void left when he set sail.
