“The Day of Death is Better Than the Day of Birth”
September 29, 2021
Yesterday, a good friend reached a milestone birthday while another good friend reached Heaven’s shore. Yesterday was a day of mixed emotions, yet if King Solomon were alive, he would have helped sort them out. Solomon would have quoted himself from Ecclesiastes 7:1-2a,
1A good name is better than precious ointment,
and the day of death than the day of birth.
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting,
These are difficult words with which to agree, because in my mind, balloons, birthday cake, bows and boxes of gifts are much more festive than funeral parlors. Yet, there is something so much more celebratory about receiving the words, “Welcome Home” than “Happy Birthday”, milestone or not.
Yesterday, my dear friend, Lisa Yoder said, “See you later!” to her Dad who was 95.7 years old. The things that could be said about Leslie Fuller, “Mr. Fuller” to me, would fill a book and then some. He was the type of guy who never met a stranger, and the type of guy that every ‘stranger turned friend’ loved. In fact, you had to get in line to love Mr. Fuller because he was that loved! Sweet, cheerful, energetic, helpful, chock full of words and stories, and a lover of chocolate, jigsaw puzzles, walking, gardening, and God’s Word, Mr. Fuller lived up to his name. His 95+ years on this earth could not have been any fuller.
Lisa had the blessing of being by her dad’s side as he slipped into eternity and Lisa said that he lived life to the fullest even up to his dying moment. He enjoyed a big breakfast hours before he died, and went to heaven on a full stomach!
Thirty some years ago, I had the privilege of meeting Mr. and Mrs. Fuller. They became dear friends to me, and also to my parents. The memories of visiting the Fullers in Maine, taking road trips with them to Prince Edward Island, spending time at their lake camp, having them stay at my home in Pennsylvania, will surely comfort me until I see Mr. Fuller again. As I said to Lisa, this side of glory will be a bit dimmer without her dad’s presence, but bright with the hope that we will see him again. Until then, Mr. Fuller…until then…
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
I Thessalonians 4: 16-18