As I began writing this, I was anxiously waiting for our son Barrett to come home. We had some sad news for him.
A little more than an hour before, we had found his cat, Peach, on the driveway. He had been hit by a car and would die within minutes. He had tried to run to the safety of the home he loved but couldn’t make it. So there he fell.
Peach had been Barrett’s faithful companion all through his teen years and would easily abandon both Mary and me to sit in Barrett’s lap. He was surely the most gentle of animals, but death comes without respect to the gentle as well as the cruel.
Peach was obviously in pain and would sometimes cry out. We prayed that his suffering would be brief.
It was. His life ebbed quickly, and his distress lessened bit by bit. And at some indistinguishable moment, life had unwilling been overtaken once again by death. What a mysterious process death is, one that we will not understand this side of heaven.
But we do know that because of Adam’s sin, all will eventually die (Romans 5:12). Because of Adam’s sin, creation itself was unwillingly put in the bondage of futility and corruption (Romans 8:20). Even God’s creatures cannot escape the curse that came from man’s failure.
The death of this simple creature is another reminder that in this age, death rules unchallenged. But it won’t always be that way. Creation groans, as do we, waiting for that glorious day of release, that day when the power of the curse will be broken for all time (Romans 8:21).
In the last moments of Peach’s life, he left us with a remembrance of our commitments to him in his time of suffering. He had tried to raise his head but couldn’t, so Mary held it up for him. It was then that she noticed his purring, She continued holding his head, stroking his ears, and speaking kindly to him until the purring stopped. And thus he departed, saying in his own way, “We’ve done our best for each other while we could; now it’s time to go.”
We have many fond memories of his short time with us and a renewed hope that there is One yet to come who has Himself thoroughly conquered death (Romans 8:22-23, Revelation 1:18). And we anxiously long for that day when we — and all of creation with us — will finally be set free.
AGAIN FOREVER FREE
There was a day now cast in shame
When Adam’s sin forged heavy chains
That bound creation bright and free
In deep and dark captivity.
Today creation groans in pain
As death unchallenged harshly reigns
To make us slaves unwillingly
And hold us in futility.
Now, “Abba, Father” is the cry
Of all who look unto the sky
For One to set creation free
With sons of God in liberty.
Redemption comes with measured pace,
For He who flung the worlds in space
Then marked upon the dial of time
A moment certain and sublime.
(Refrain)
Our Conqueror with sword of hope
Will slash asunder Satan’s ropes
So man and beast and land and sea
Will be again — forever — free.
(Based on Romans 8:15-25)
Copyright 1999 James McAlister
Recent Comments