GROWING SEEDS: "What We Do In Life Echoes In Eternity"

“For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity.”

~ C.S. Lewis

This past weekend we had a Memorial Service for a dog. 

It was my friend Cheryl's dog, Lucy Hood, and everyone that had ever crossed paths with little Lucy.....loved Lucy.  She was a little 4-year old weenie dog with a huge personality that loved chasing squirrels, messing with skunks and was engaged to our dog, Murphy.  She loved steering the golf cart all around the neighborhood, kayaking in the lake and biting sprinkler heads.  What she lacked in legs she made up for in personality.

We gathered Lucy's favorite people for the Memorial Service, sang a song, buried her ashes in a bottle and placed them carefully in the Etheridge Pet Cemetery.  We laughed, we cried and we remembered.  And we each secretly thought she left this earth too soon.

As I stood there, listening to Betsy sing "Bless The Lord My Soul" at the foot of Lucy's grave, I heard these words,

"And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will SING YOUR PRAISE unending
Ten thousand years and then FOREVERMORE."

And it dawned on me.  I'm not afraid of death.  I'm afraid of NOT living like Lucy lived......in a fast-forward, speedy-gonzales, screamin'-like-a-girl-to-go-outside, eternity-bound way.  Eternity is NOW......not reserved just for once I reach Heaven.  Eternity isn't like a stopwatch that begins once we die.......eternity is living right this second.  How is it possible that Lucy.....a DOG.....knew this??

My hope is that on that chosen day, when it's time for me to take my last breath on this earth and my eternity continues on, I'll be singing in my typical off-key, squeaky voice at the top of my lungs with a gigantic smile on my face as I bolt as fast as I possibly can into eternity and into the arms of my Savior.

"The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning
It's time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I'll worship Your holy name"