Recently, I picked up the Alumni magazine from my college that is mailed to our home twice a year.  I always look at my graduating class year.  Earlier in life, I would read about fellow graduates’ promotions, birth of their children, and accomplishments.  This time I was rather stunned to read about the death of one of my fraternity brothers. 

In the immediate moments after reading that obituary, I remembered our time in college.  He played football and was a pharmacy major.  Physically, he was tall, handsome, and had a winning smile.  The decades slipped away as I remembered those times in the fraternity house.  The walls of my house seemed to change and I saw before me many of those guys I hadn’t thought of in years.  We were all filled with potential and hope - a bunch of guys wearing the same Greek letters and dreaming about what our lives would become.

I wondered how he died and if he had married and had children.  I wondered if he stayed close to the other members of our fraternity who settled in Atlanta.  I regretted not keeping in touch and yet, somehow, I knew that in the life to come there will be plenty of time to reminisce and celebrate.

I appreciate many qualities and teachings of the Christian way.  As I get older, I find great joy in the fact that this life is not all there is.  Jesus provides the keys to eternity.  For us, He saves all of our memories and the people whose paths diverge from ours.  I know I will never be twenty years old again, but in God’s kingdom, my soul will be reunited with all those I loved along the way.  Death is only a temporary separation.

I’m sure that the disciples long remembered the smiles, movements, and awareness of Jesus.  They knew the patterns of His voice as He told the parables.  They saw the look in His eyes when He healed those with leprosy.  They remembered the sparkle of humor when He talked about removing a speck from your brother’s eye when you have a plank in your own eye.  It is the little things of life - the movements, the inflections as we speak, the quick smiles - that always remain with us. 

A fraternity brother I haven’t thought of in years was written about in an obituary in a college alumni publication.  Even though he was far from my mind, I believe he was always in Jesus’ heart.  Jesus teaches us how much God loves His children.  In life and in death, He cares for us.  We have waiting for us eternity, and as I look in the mirror at my no longer young face and my gray hair, I thank God for what He has given and for what He temporarily saves.  Out there awaiting us all is perfect eternity.

Prayer:  Dear God, thank you for all of life - the living now and the living to come.  Amen.