D's dad went to be with the Lord on March 20, almost 9 months to the day after he was diagnosed with the liver cancer. By God's mercy, he had special times with family and old friends who came from far and near to visit and renew old ties, and he had time especially to encourage his faithful, constant wife, telling her that he did not want to eat anymore because he was going to have a feast in heaven. He said he saw the gates of heaven and his brother, who had passed on recently of the same disease, waiting for him. Throughout the 9 months and at the end, he did not suffer much pain, amazingly. His youngest daughter, May Lyn, was with him at his last moments, having just come back from Australia where she's doing postgraduate studies since February.
As it is written in Revelation 15: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."
Hundreds of thousands upon thousands have died in the earthquake and tsunami on the day after Christmas last, and thousands more in the earthquake on the day after Easter.
Daily, more die of bomb blasts everywhere and in Malaysia, of gruesome traffic accidents and some rape-murders.
Death... we hear of it, see it happen to others, but try not to think of it happening to us, as it will one day. Yes, as it is appointed unto men once to die...
I will pray the words of Moses in Psalm 90:
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."
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