Simple treasures

Yesterday evening we learned that a dear friend had passed away sometime during the night before.

Our minds and hearts are filled with memories of this precious man.  His incredible wittiness. His honesty.  His delight in living, really living for what felt like the first time in his life.  A new-found childlike faith that transformed him from the inside out, and helped us truly believe in miracles in the life of one who he himself described as "an old reprobate like me." 


Hours spent at Tim Horton's over a coffee and a donut or muffin, talking about deep spiritual questions.  Desperate to develop his relationship with God and take his first steps into a new way of thinking.  Passionate about so many things: spouse, family, friends, and now prayer, rigorous honesty, integrity, hope.  It was a marvel to listen to him speak about these things and more. 

Death, I think I heard on some TV program or movie like Star Trek or something, is that state in which one exists only in the memory of others.  I'm not sure that that is entirely true in that it doesn't address the hereafter, but it does represent a part of reality.  And given that, I know that we will remember him...he will continue to inspire us to believe that miracles do happen.  He was a walking, breathing miracle.

I imagine him now meeting in person this God he hated all his life until just the last few months, when in desperation he turned to his Creator and found welcoming arms and the power to be free.  Now ... now there are no more questions.  There is perfect peace and absence of any confusion or pain.

For him.