The Hope of Dying
Story★★★★Every winter, just when it seems the deep freeze is here to stay, the garden catalogs begin arriving, and those of us with green thumbs enjoy every page of them. We study the rose catalogs and make lists of new roses we’d like to try, and new varieties of vegetables, new floral introductions. And sure enough, the Springtime comes, the rose bushes arrive, the soil warms up, and all of creation comes back to life. It’s the anticipation of the Springtime that gets us through the winter.
And it’s the anticipation of Heaven that moves us victoriously through the overcast days and years on earth. Poet John Oxenham, wrote: Wish me “Bon Voyage!” As you do a friend Whose joyous visit finds its happy end. And bid ᰅne both “a Dieu!”
And “au revoir!” Since, though I come no more, I shall be waiting there to greet you, At His door.
The point
Just as gardeners endure winter by anticipating spring's catalogs and blooms, believers endure hardship in this life by anticipating the joy of heaven, closing with a poem by John Oxenham.