All Day We Miss Thee, Everywhere

Never too far from our thoughts are questions concerning the length of life, the purpose of life-life, death, loss of loved ones, the whereabouts of those who leave us, and our own time of leaving those we love. These are among the most insistent questions of all time.

As to those we have lost, those we may lose, and as to ourselves: “No cogent reason remains for supposing the soul dies with the body. .” said Dr. Arthur H. Compton. “We (scientists) find strong reasons for believing that man is of extraordinary importance in the cosmic scheme…. It takes a lifetime to build the character of a noble man. The exercise and discipline of youth, the struggles and failures of maturity, the loneliness and tranquility of age-these make the fire through which he must pass to bring out the pure gold of his soul. Having been thus perfected, what shall Nature do with him, annihilate him? What infinite waste! As long as there is in heaven a God of love there must be for God’s children ever lasting life!” So spoke this eminent scientist whose knowledge was full of reason and whose reason was full of faith.

All of us have losses-or will have-and no matter how many friends we have, or family, the loss of one precious loved one leaves always a place unfilled in our hearts. As David Macbeth Moir said it:

We miss thy small step on the stair;

We miss thee at thine evening prayer;

All day we miss thee, everywhere.

To you who know the loss of loved ones, to you who think upon your own time-sometime-of leaving this life; there is a place where loved ones wait, a place, a purpose, and an everlastingness of life in the real and substantive sense.

God grant to each one faith and peace and purpose, and memories made sweeter by this assurance, that when we go it will not be as strangers, but to find again beloved faces, the personal presence of family and friends.