a tribute to a friend

A Tribute to a Friend

With a heavy heart, I said goodbye to a friend,

Who passed from us far too soon.

Maybe it is not for us to understand

Why things happen as they do.

This world that we slog through,

With its toil, losses, thorns and pain,

Is only our home for a little while,

Until with our forefathers we are lain.

Still, though we are saddened,

Disillusioned, shocked and numbed,

I know what happened to my friend,

Seconds after his life succumbed.

He stands now, in a place with no pain,

No fears, no losses and not one tear,

Serving the One who loves past us,

And He will, to us, draw near.

Amidst golden roads and crystal seas,

The brightness is as the sun,

There is no evening or darkness there,

As the battle is already won.

It is up to our community to love well,

As a family carries on through the loss,

And I know that he would want all of us,

To simply cling to the Old Rugged Cross.

It is now to us, the living he left,

To carry on against the waves of strife,

Let this question resonate through your soul:

Is your name, like his, in the Lamb’s Book of Life?