During the last five months, beginning with the death of my father at the end of July, I have lost five precious people from my life — either family members or personal friends. During that time, my life has read like the obituary column of a newspaper. It goes without saying that I am sad and discouraged beyond words, and the celebration of this Christmas season has been seriously clouded by these events.

I am comforted to some degree by the assurance that every one of these people has moved on into the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing them as well as I did, I have no doubts about their faith and their personal relationship to Jesus. So I am certain that they are rejoicing and reaping well-deserved rewards. And, without a doubt, Heaven is richer.

But the simple truth is that my life is poorer. The community in which they lived is poorer. The whole world is poorer. There is no substitute for any one of those loving individuals in the lives of the people who were close to them. 

Now, I will not live my days in overt grief over my losses, and I will continue to love and serve the Lord with the joy that only He can give. But in the midst of that effort, I will be constantly aware that there are too many lights missing from my life, there are too many voices of love and blessing that I no longer hear, and there are too many smiles of comfort and appreciation that I no longer see. And I am sad.

So it is with the greatest of efforts that I must force my own soul to keep its focus on His star. And it is my prayer that any of my readers who have also suffered intolerable losses of any kind this past year will make the effort to do the same. The Word of God says that God has set eternity in man’s heart. And in the face of so much earthly loss, it is of paramount importance that we focus on eternity and on the One who has no beginning and no end, and who loves us with an everlasting love.

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