Posted by PS on March 06, 2005 at 12:31:27:
In Reply to: cathcing up... posted by giveawayboy on March 06, 2005 at 02:41:48:
: I couldn't help but think of Reepicheep when you talked of Gimli, who I am sure by now is resting in the enfolding arms. Still, we are creatures who do feel loss and sadness. I will have to read back into the entries now to see what all has been going on. Sorry for my not knowing, but my box was down for a few days.
: You are in my prayers. Bill
Thanks, my friend.
I don't how much I said about our little boy Gimli. Cari saved him from being snake food when he was a newborn. She had him as a classroom pet for most of his life. The last few months he has been here at home with us because he has been sick, has had surgeries, been on medications, etc. Through it all he was a strong trooper and always very sweet and loving. He never nipped in his life, even when getting shots and so on. Terry took care of him for a while when we were in Phoenix at Christmas. He gave little kisses too, and liked to cuddle. He was amazing.
We have two more sweet little rat girls. One had tumor surgery and came out of it great. Still, they are both old, and their present good health cannot last too much longer. The thing I hate is that they live short lives--just 2 to 2 1/2 years usually.
There is something really instructive and redemptive about loving an animal that will by nature not live long, like a ferret, for instance. You know they will soon die and break your heart, but that is part of the commitment to love. Such is our commitment to love persons also, thought we don't acknowledge the temporary nature of our lives as we ought. The more we are willing to consciously face the truth of our impending loss, the more our love means--and the more it testifies of God's amazing love.
I know that I appreciate Jesus so much more in his glorious uniqueness--the only one who rose from the dead. Life after death--this is the great hope he brought and promised to those who believed, and that promise is something no one else ever demonstrated. I also know that this is not some myth created after the fact. There is no rational explanation for the rise and triumph of Christianity and the total commitment of the early believers apart from the fact that they really knew that Jesus was alive. In every other faith, the hope of afterlife, if there was any, was speculative and metaphorical, symbolic and abstract to a great degree. In Christ it was a tangible reality that thousands were willing to die for. The solid reality of that eternal life in Jesus may still be experienced today. Somehow faith (whatever indeed that is!) is a sense that perceives what is permanent and trustworthy and reveals the Presence of the God in whom all live. I have experienced it -- and never so substantially than in the face of death. (This is in a nutshell why I have welcomed that sorrow so often and never abstained from meditating on its imminence.)