Life?

Life passes us by, stealing time away. It seems that the hour glass with sand dwindling away is a very appropriate metaphor, We watch our days seeping down and being lost to us. Do we ever savor the moment? Are we making a difference on this earth? Does anyone care about me?

Last week, I spent a sorrow-filled evening in a church with all ages of mourners paying their last respects to a young man. Caleb was only 21 and had tragically died in an accident.

In the everyday sense, he wasn’t a remarkable young man. He didn’t graduate from high school with honors. He wasn’t the captain of the football team and didn’t earn Eagle Scout. He didn’t play first chair violin in orchestra and didn’t star in the school play. He didn’t edit the school newspaper and wasn’t on yearbook staff. He was not on Quiz Bowl or the Chess Team.

But he was remarkable in his own way. He had the biggest heart and would do anything for his friends or family. He loved and was loved by many people. He may not have made a big difference in the world, but he did make a big difference in lives of those people.

The church was packed with hundreds of people of all ages. Fifty or more of his friends filled the balcony and many of the pews. Members of the church came to show their support to the family. Other mourners were like myself. We knew his parents, having lost touch with a young man out of his parents house. We came out of respect for his family.

But what did I see? People that Caleb had touched during his short lifetime. The service didn’t fill a football stadium, but it did fill the hearts of those present.

To paraphrase the wizard in The Wizard of Oz, we are not judged by how much we love, but by how much we are loved.

Surely if Caleb was judged at the pearly gates of heaven, God didn’t look at his academic or work record, but at the hearts that mourned the loss of the young man.

Rest in peace, Caleb.