Goodbye Dear Friend

An employee of ours, a very good friend of mine, was found on the job dead this morning. His job is in a remote location and is during the night shift. A sheriff deputy making a routine patrol through the areas found him.

They know so far, that my friend used his cell phone to call 911 approximately 5 hours before his body was found, but the call was not traceable and evidently he was unable to speak.

My friend was an older gentleman who kept me supplied with fresh fruit and vegetables. He stopped in to see me almost every single week. He would tell me stories about his past, and how he used to be a mean drunk and how he had been able to stop drinking when he accepted Christ as his Lord. He would talk about God’s amazing power to forgive and His grace and His mercy.

I can hardly stand to think I will never look up at the door when it opens and see him walking in with his smile and his bag of produce. The thought of him dying in a parking lot, alone and unable to ask for help, breaks my heart. My only comfort comes from something my husband said…that he believes as he was dying the angels were with him and comforting him and ushered him straight from here to Heaven to be with the Lord forever.

The Bible says “To be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23) To me that means that as soon as he took his last breath here, he took his next in the very presence of Jesus.