This past week, we had a funeral for a beloved Marble member who died at the age of 54. Jim’s death surprised and shocked many of us. We weren’t expecting it. There had not been a long hospital stay prior to death – any hospital stay at all - that I knew about.
Many of Jim’s business colleagues, friends from his apartment building and many church friends came to the service. All of our lives had been profoundly changed by this kind and gentle man. I sat listening to stories being told about Jim – his keen sense of humor was mentioned more than once, his love for his family, his questioning attitude about life and God and his astounding abilities for working on and with computers.
There was a huge celebration of Jim’s life in the midst of our sorrow. Following the service when I arrived at the reception, my heart was filled with joy at the sight of the funeral attendees circling the family members; circling them with love. They wanted to make sure the family knew that Jim was special.
He was one man who died young. A man who had not written great books nor was any of the things that leads to notoriety, but this one man had profoundly changed all of our lives. I think about how each of us has this same opportunity – to profoundly change people’s lives. We each have an opportunity to be kind and gentle to someone.
Sister Carol has used the saying several times, “Who knows, yours may be the only face of Christ someone may see today.” What are you going to do with your opportunity? |