Streets of Gold

Today I got news that an older friend passed away. He was 65 and I held him in such high esteem.

I met him many years ago when I started to get involved at church. I considered him a mentor as well as a friend. We "worked" together and met on a weekly basis to do projects at church. At that point in his life he was looking forward to working part-time at his "day job" so that he could devote more time to the church. He had been moved by a book that discussed devoting one's life to the Lord as a Deacon of the church. He geniunely wanted to work for the Lord.

I cannot express how much I respected my friend. He had children my age, and we often talked about how his family was doing. We discussed our dreams of hiking the Appalachian Trail, by hiking it chunks at a time (which is what he was doing) and we talked about which freeze-dried dinners were worth buying for the trips.

We since changed churches, but my husband and I kept tabs on my friend. You see he was also a runner and my husband would report to me "I saw him running today". I can't recall now, what incident kept him from running for a while. But when he started walking again... I thanked the Lord for him. Just seeing him around town was a blessing to me.

I was sad when he moved to Holland.

But I still kept tabs on him by checking the church website. In my spiritual immaturity, I felt bad for him when I saw that his "title" at the church kept changing. I was afraid that the church was taking advantage of him.

Now I think I see clearly that my friend was doing what the Lord asked of him, no matter what it was. He was the kind of man who would take on the changes with a servant heart and a joyful one. He surely wouldn't let pride cloud his judgement, as I did in my immaturity.

The next time I checked the church website, I was floored to read that he was struggling with cancer. His family had shared his story on the internet and I didn't need to think twice to sign up for his notifications.

Soon after I was thankful to read that he was doing better. I felt secure in that our Lord looked after His faithful servant. My friend never took his eyes off from the Lord. It was truly inspirational.

But he wasn't able to recover fully. He had complications... then pain... then they used the C word again.

I cried as I read what his family was going through. Because if you know me, you know I just went through my own father's passing just six months before.

And you see, I respected my friend as much as I respected my dad.

This morning he passed away in his sleep....

And I picture him running again, on the streets of gold in heaven....

I'm thankful he is free of pain....

and I know that he has already heard the words that we all long to hear one day....

"Well done good and faithful servant"

Thank you Rich for all you have taught me.