Glorious Day

Last Friday, a week ago, my brother-in-law died of cancer.  He was my age.  Diagnosed about 3 years ago, Dale Stewart's major issues with the disease, until recently, was the lack of energy.  I visited him in Virginia a few times these past few years, and he always looked just like the Dale I knew when he first married my sister.  His life was a lot like a lot of ours.  It had it's ups and downs.  He fathered super, well-behaved children, who now have children of their own.  While he and my sister were still married (they divorced several years ago), their house burned to the ground--faulty furnace--while they were vacationing one weekend.  Dale smoked cigarettes.  Dale drank alcohol, but rarely was drunk. Dale was not a 'church-going man', but I know he loved God. Dale was my friend. Dale remarried and was very successful as a manager of a large trucking company's terminal operations.  Dale helped my dad on the farm, especially during haying season, while he lived in the house in Vermont before it burned, constantly, even though he had a full time job.  Dale--I miss him.

The cancer that took his life changed his body extremely fast in the past few months.  He went from about 170 pounds, to about 90 in a few weeks.  His daughters, who were with him when he died---Shari was even holding his hand--told us that he looked like a man of about 90 years, gray, shriveled.  Today, my family is holding a burial service in my hometown of Vermont.  I know my Dad is going to cry as much as he did at my brother's funeral 3 years ago--Dale was like a son to him.  We wanted to go to Vermont for the funeral, but job, money and other commitments said otherwise.  Dale is in my prayers, as is his whole family....that, I believe, is the best I can do for him now.

What a glorious day!!!  I wrote that subject before I even knew what I was going to do this morning, but I knew it was going to be that way.  Today will be glorious for Dale.  It will be glorious for his children, wife, and relatives.  It is glorious, simply because life goes on.  Life, either here or the eternal Heaven, will go on.  Is Dale in Heaven?  I don't know.  I know I have prayed for Dale, to God, just for that result.  I know what Jesus teaches---'no one will go to the father except through me'.  I also know God answers prayers---all kinds.  God IS in control, and God WILL do what is right---He cannot do anything differently.  He loves us all.  Although I am not, in any way, advocating that disciples give up the teaching that you must be a disciple to go to Heaven, I am saying that I believe God will do what HE wants.  I have also learned from the Bible that God is influenced by prayer.  Prayers of ridiculousness. Unanswerable prayers, we call them, yet He answers them.  The impossible prayers we see 'come true' again and again.  My prayers for Dale continue, as they do for the rest of my family, and you all as well.  If you have had loved ones who have died, and whom you believe may have not been considered Christians, I ask you to consider the possibility that God answered YOUR prayers. The funeral will be hard on my relatives as they say their final good-by's.  My prayer for them, and my wife and I, is that we will all see him again in the next life in Heaven.  That will be something to look forward to as God answers our prayers.

It will be a glorious day, even though we have hardships to work through.  God is in control, and I trust in God.  He loves me.  He loves Dale.  He loves you.  I plan on celebrating this day knowing that God answers prayers.  I love God.

Mac