God Giveth Gifts...And Gifts...And Gifts...

   Has it only been two weeks? Just fourteen long days?

   On May 24, 2018, my fun-loving, adventurous wife of 60 years, passed from this life to Heaven.

   Seven days later her birthday came up on the calendar, May 31, when she would have reached the age of 82, having been God's gift to me for most of that time.

   Seven days after that, June 7, another calendar event rolled in. It would have been our 60th wedding anniversary. A bittersweet day where the only thing I could do to signify this was to lift my hand up to heaven, to somehow, symbolically anyway, grasp her hand and thank God for that gift of love.

   If you take the 60 years that we were married, and add to that the 6 years that we dated before marriage, you realize that for 66 years out of her (and mine) life of 82 years, almost all of our lives we had been together. That is a unique gift, one not given many times in our generation.

   But she has passed from this earth.

   Her sorrows and trials have ended here.

   She is with her mother, her friends, her extended family, others that she had only read about, and all those that had chosen the gift that God had offered through His Son Jesus.

   But what about those of us who mourn her passing?

   Did her passing take all God's gifts away when she left?

   I am realizing that God is still in the gift-giving business.

   Her passing still brings tears to my eyes, even as I write these words weeks later.

   But other tears seem to mingle with those. Tears of gratitude, not only for the years that we had together,  but for how God has responded with other people who have tried, and succeeded in stepping into the void of my life.

   I just never knew how the gifts of friendship and love can ease the pain and give hope for the future. Yes, I knew that these gifts were available, but when you are the recipient, you just feel it more intimately.

   When people see you coming, they step out of what they were doing, and greet you with concern and love.

   When people are willing to spend time on a phone call to just listen and show their love through the sound of their voice.

   When people, God's gifts to me, have responded with the words, "I Know", there is a feeling of a future that still lies out there for me here on this earth.

   So when God sees fit to physically remove one of His Gifts from my earthly life, He seems to provide more. He sends Hope and Comfort in the form and words of others.

   It is too early for me to really see all the Gifts that God has and will put in my earthly path, but I have caught a glimpse these last few days.

   There is still a life to be lived for Him in whatever time I will be given. I get a sense of other Gifts that may lie out there, simply through the words and actions of others.

   I may feel bad at times now, but I have gratitude for God's unspeakable gifts that have accumulated in my life, and I look forward to those that He has planned for the rest of my life.

   Keep those calls, and texts, and love coming my way. They all show that God may not be through with me yet, and that there are more gifts waiting to be experienced.

   I am blessed, even in sadness.

   Thank you, Honey

   And I am pretty sure that God is still in the Gift Giving Business...

   Amen