We all know about the four geographical seasons; if you live in Texas you may actually experience all four seasons in a single day or week!

I’m talking about a different type of season. My parents have both been gone for many years, but I remember a time when they were going to at least one funeral weekly. Eventually they had outlived both family and friends. They were in a difficult season and one that caused them to lose their joy.

As an older person, I’m understanding things better. The days and seasons of weddings, baby showers, graduations are now out ranked with hospital visits, rehabs and funerals.

These past months Phil and I have attended way too many funerals. We have seen parents say good-by to adult children; no parent should have to bury a child yet it is happening. Close friends and family have died; some were sudden and some had suffered illness. Sadness seems to be all around us. A few days ago I pondered that scripture in Proverbs where Solomon says it’s better to go to funerals than parties……that was paraphrased by me. I find myself contemplating our life after this life more often.

This past March we said good-by to a precious friend of over 40 years. She had dealt with Parkinson’s for several years. However, when she was young she made a decision to accept Jesus into her heart and that was the game changer. She had lived her life out loud; by that I mean her actions, words, deeds exemplified her commitment and belief. She wasn’t perfect; none of us are; but her life was built on Holy ground; the foundation of Jesus Christ.

She and I were good friends; my memories are far, wide and deep; I cherish her. And someday I will see her again.

Recently some friends of ours went to Spain with a tour group; while there the husband contracted double pneumonia. Things deteriorated rapidly and he was hospitalized where only a handful spoke English; our friends were in a non-English speaking country fighting for his life. Groups all over the globe had prayer vigils and friends and family were on high alert to pray and whatever else we could do from thousands of miles away. At one point, the doctor made it clear our friend possibly wouldn’t survive. We prayed without ceasing.

Eventually, he was flown home via an Air Ambulance with a team of medical personnel on board. Back on Texas soil, he was immediately placed in ICU and a long, tedious road to recovery began.

Recently he was released to go home. Friends and family lined the street, a big sign, “Welcome Home Emerson” filled the front yard, and the Colleyville police department escorted them home with lights and sirens. It was quite the celebration after months of dodging death. We partied in the streets!

David, in the Old Testament, danced before the Lord. I think that was what we all felt.  The Lord allowed our friend to remain a while longer. He has a long journey to regain his full physical health but he has been allowed to remain a while longer. I want to add, if things had gone another way, he was prepared to go home with Jesus.

Life is fragile; when I was younger I didn’t realize how much. Yet here we are saying good-bye way too often. I believe in healing; however, God doesn’t always answer our prayers with the healing we desire; but He still heals. Sometimes it’s on a greater level. For some I prayed, “Lord heal him/her”; He did- but not here.  When I was sad He reminded me; “Kathy, you asked Me to heal and I did.” It just wasn’t on this side of heaven as I had prayed.

God’s ways are not our ways. I’ve heard that my whole life and I still don’t like it when losing people I love is involved. The song, “this world is not my home I’m just passing through” rings more true every day. Life can change in seconds and normal is no more.

Phil and I know where our eternal home is. I enjoy this home because it’s all I know; but another home awaits and I know it will be beyond incredible. Wherever the Father is, will be glorious to say the least!

We are living in changing times. But the one constant is we will each experience death; that is a given. It also creates a question for each of us at every age, young and old: what home will I go to? As I said, life is fragile and often there isn’t an opportunity to evaluate choices and decisions; we aren’t given a warning that time is up.  Many of us who are older ponder the deeper things of life as we should. We address the question, where am I going after this life ends?

I decided to write this blog to address the main question in life: Do you know Jesus? Have you asked Him into your heart? Not your head but your heart? Do you have relationship or do you have knowledge?  Will you find a Bible and read chapters 5 and 6 in Romans? Maybe you can get a highlighter and ponder a while. I was in my early twenty’s when I asked Jesus to become Lord of my life and that was and is the best choice I ever made. I’ve been changing and growing ever since and He astounds me daily. I want everyone to know the Jesus I know and love, but most importantly who loves me with all my flaws.

Someone asked me once, what makes you so sure there is a Heaven and you will go there? The Bible says so; that is the one book written by the breath of God through imperfect men, and filled with stories of miracles beyond anything we can imagine as a human.  When I asked Jesus into my heart, there were no fireworks; I bowed my head, repented of my frailties, and softly asked the one who died on a cross for me to come into my heart and show me how to live my life with Him in the driver’s seat. I felt a peace. From that day forward I have experienced peace, hope, joy and I have encountered supernatural help when I had no answers in my own strength. I learned that luck and coincidence do not exist, but a loving Father does exist and even when we don’t see Him He is involved in every part of us.

When Jesus came into my heart, a passion to grow and learn also came. To know more and become the best version of me. I read the Bible; I read devotionals; I read Christian books; I listen to speakers and I attend church and other events that help me grow. When I was a counselor for pregnant/parenting teens I learned early on their problems were bigger than me. It was the Jesus in me that helped give wise counsel as well as assist in needed resources. The growing and learning is never just so we can store up; it’s so we can pour out and be Jesus with skin on in a very fallen world where hurting people need more than human answers.

I know Who I serve and I know Who walks beside me daily; and I know when this earthly body ends where my new home will be. It’s not enough to believe you have “fire insurance” or you are a good person or you are involved in your church. Are you passionate about Jesus? Do you talk to Him and do you listen to Him talk to you? Do you know where your home will be when you leave this earth?

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

No one.  There is no other way to Heaven and eternal life after death.

Please take time to ponder your relationship; nothing is more important.

Selah