Ashes To Ashes....Dust To Dust

 

“All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return”

Ecclesiastes 3:20

This week, I loaded up the Jeep; threw in two wonderful girlfriends, and headed west to Pikes Peak.  It was something I've put off doing for almost two years....and for some reason, NOW was the right time.  I wanted; no..no....needed....for Chuck's earthly body to be set free.  We climbed 14,000 feet into the sky....14,000 feet closer to Heaven....and released Chuck Etheridge's body back to the earth.

Before we headed west, I placed his ashes into three small toolboxes he had used for as long as I knew him.  I know it sounds crazy, but if you knew Chuck, this would make sense.  As each of us opened up our tool boxes on Pikes Peak, we watched as the winds returned him back to where he came.  I find it interesting that his favorite things while on this earth came from his tools...tools that repaired and restored broken things, and God...well, He also is in the business of repair and restoration of broken things.  He wants to repair us and our pasts by giving us a future.

We said goodbye to his body this week, but not his soul...and our hearts are happy to not hang onto the memory of Chuck as people who have no hope, but rather, as people who know and trust in a future healthy body for Chuck someday. 

"But we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about those who have died,

so that you may not grieve like other people who have no hope."

1 Thessalonians 4:13