BRENDA'S PLACE

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A few weeks ago I talked to a man whose wife had just been killed in an auto accident. She was very well liked at the school where she worked and the school system shut down on Monday for her funeral. On the day the teachers came back to work, they found this poem in their e-mail which the woman had sent on Friday before she left school.

When tomorrow starts without me
And I'm not there to see,
If the sun should rise and find your eyes
All filled with tears for me;

I wish so much you wouldn't cry
The way you did today,
While thinking of the many things,
We didn't get to say.

I know how much you love me,
As much as I love you,
And each time that you think of me,
I know you'll miss me too;

But when tomorrow starts without me,
Please try to understand,
That an angel came and called my name,
And took me by the hand,

And said my place was ready,
In heaven far above,
And that I'd have to leave behind
All those I dearly love.

But as I turned to walk away,
A tear fell from my eye
For all my life, I'd always thought,
I didn't want to die.

I had so much to live for,
So much left yet to do,
It seemed almost impossible,
That I was leaving you.

I thought of all the yesterdays,
The good ones and the bad,
I thought of all the love we shared,
And all the fun we had.

If I could relive yesterday,
Just even for a while,
I'd say good-bye and kiss you
And maybe see you smile.

But then I fully realized,
That this could never be,
For emptiness and memories,
Would take the place of me.

And when I thought of worldly things,
I might miss come tomorrow,
I thought of you, and when I did,
My heart was filled with sorrow.

But when I walked through Heaven's gates,
I felt so much at home.
When God looked down and smiled at me,
From His great golden throne,

He said, "This is eternity,
And all I've promised you.
Today your life on earth is past,
But here life starts anew.

"I promise no tomorrow,
But today will always last,
And since each day's the same way
There's no longing for the past.

"You have been so faithful,
So trusting and so true.
Though there were times
You did some things
You knew you shouldn't do.

"But you have been forgiven
And now at last you're free.
So won't you come and take my hand
And share my life with me."

So when tomorrow starts without me,
Don't think we're far apart,
For every time you think of me,
I'm right here, in your heart.

Send this to all those you care about...
Because you never know what's going to happen tomorrow...
Show them how much you care, before it's too late...

~By David M. Romano, 1993~

Rainbow at night, shepherd's delight;
Rainbow in morning, shepherds take warning,
"If there be a rainbow in the eve, It will rain and leave;
But if there be a rainbow in the morrow,
It will neither lend nor borrow",
Rainbow to windward, foul fall the day;
Rainbow to leeward, damp runs away."

Describing a rainbow as "one of the most spectacular light shows observed on earth".

Indeed the traditional rainbow is sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and

diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets. The "bow" part of the word

describes the fact that the rainbow is a group of nearly circular arcs of color all having

a common center.

Some have said that the arc looking like a bridge or gateway, is our passage into Heaven." Believing that the rainbow is a ray of light falling to earth

Thus the saying of finding your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

God's Rainbow

" The falling rain dissolves into mist
And the thunder begins to die
As the sporadic lightning fades
An arch of color pours from the sky.

Rainbows appear after mighty storms
When things look their worst
Just when the sky is darkest gray,
Out of Heaven does a rainbow burst.

God first sent the rainbow to Noah
As a sign that His word is true
The rainbow's eternal message
Still speaks to me and you.

The rainbow is a sign of God's promise
That He will guide us through any storm
That He will ease all our troubles,
No matter what their form.

When you feel battered by life's storms
And you are filled with doubt and dismay
Just remember God's rainbow is coming,
For blessing, you have only to pray."

lighting our pathway into heaven.

ARE YOU JESUS ?

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. Well, as such things go, one thing led to another. The sales manager went longer than anticipated and the meeting ran overtime. Their flights were scheduled to leave out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and they had to race pell mell to the airport.

With tickets in hand, they barged through the terminal to catch their flight back home. In their rush, with tickets and brief-cases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of baskets of apples. Apples flew everywhere.

Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding. All but one. He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved goodbye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did. The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping, and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them into the baskets, and helped set the display up once more. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $20 for the damage we did. Are you okay?"

She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?" He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace. If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit. Let's start living like we are worth the price He paid.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN TO ME