"I am going to my Father's house to prepare a place for you."   John 14:2

Dear People of St. David's, 

I pray that you are well and that the blessings of the Easter season are still touching the corners of your soul and heart. I hope this is so because of the many promises and blessings of the Christian life, the promise that gives the greatest hope for our loved ones who have gone before us and for ourselves is that our deaths are not the end. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we too have been promised life beyond the door of death and one day, when heaven and earth are completely reunited, we too will be raised.

So when I die and when you die, we will enter into more life! This life is not all there is and though this is all we know, we have a Lord who promises that there is more. There will be more life. There will be more adventure. There will be more love. We will be in our God's fuller presence, alive and well.

So when I am dying and on my way to enter into glory, I hope and pray that I will have eternity on my mind and in my mouth. I hope that the glimpses of the promise of life beyond the door of death that we hear about in the Easter season will have taken over more of the periphery of my being. I hope and expect that the fear of the unknown and the sadness of leaving this magnificent world and those I love will be tempered with an excitement for what is to come and a future restoration with everyone and all that I know today.

So when I live, today and every day, Easter season and throughout the year, I live with an eye toward the promise and love of God at work in me and in you and in all creation. I live with a little wink toward the difficulties of life and the endings that come for all of us. I live with a smile in my soul for what is already here and what is coming next - life.

I hope and pray then that all of us may know a deeper sense of peace because of this God who loves us enough to break the power of death. I hope and pray that all of us may be encouraged and be courageous about the lives we are living because we do "win" in the end. I hope and pray that when we die we will die in the Lord and the promise and life and love that are ours today are only a preview of all that is to come.

Praise be to God that the Lord is risen and that He is preparing a place for us even now.

Grace and Deep Peace to you.