Kirby Pines Retirement Community | The Pinecone

The Pinecone | July 2018 • 9 • f r om Don J oh n s on , K i r b y P i n e s Chap l a i n Chaplain’s COrner Life has its beginning and ending, but it also can have its begin- ning again. We may go through painful experiences that take friends, family children, spouses or parents from us. We sorrow- fully say our last goodbye. Those we’ve loved and cared for slip from our presence. Like a grand auction there “going, going and gone.” Many look at life from this human perspective. This is all there is. There is no tomorrow, no hope, no expectancy. Those we bid farewell simply disappear. They are no longer in our plans. After a while they may not even be in our thoughts. But there is something beyond a distant horizon. Departed ones don’t just vanish. They may be out of our sight and conscious- ness. They may go beyond our ability to even see them, some- times even beyond our eyes of faith. But when we can no longer visualize them something wonderful happens. Their spiritual seaward journey moves toward an appointed destination. On a distant but real shore a crowd sings, “Here they come!” What awaits is beyond description. Someday people will say “goodbye” to us. Are we certain of our direction and destination. Will there be a heavenly crowd sing- ing for us “Here they come!” Job, through all his losses and troubles, dramatically declared: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God.” (Job 19:25-26) In our uncertain world these are things that are sure. Till next time, Don Johnson, Kirby Pines Chaplain July Vesper Services • 6:30pm • Performing Arts Center July 12th Chris Neiswonger Graceview Presbyterian Church July 19th Amy Speake Missionary for Christ the City International in Costa Rica July 26th Rev James Adams Colonial Baptist Church with Musicians Stephen & Deb White July 5th Barry Grider Forest Hill Church of Christ Henry Van Dyke, author, educator and clergyman in the late 1800s to early 1900s, wrote: “I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” “Gone where?” Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at that mo- ment when someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: “Here she comes!” AGreat Departure On July 15, Reverend and Mrs. Scott Martin, longtime missionaries in India and the Middle East will be our special speakers at our Kirby Pines Worship at 10:00 am in the PAC. At 9:00 am they will lead a presentation in the Large Card Room, discussing Scott’s new church in the Holy Land and discussing critical events that are now happening in Israel and the Middle East. Don’t miss this unique opportunity with the Martins.