He’s 17. She’s 14. And there is no 17-year-old young man and no 14-year-old young woman who I love more than these two. They are my first-born’s second and third born. I have had the overwhelming joy of spending a portion of their summer vacation with them; I’m searching for words now . . . bluntly they are going home this weekend! Sadness and that empty gnawing is already creeping into my soul; which is what brings me here. They are going multiple hours away for however long a time that I wait to travel those hours.

Separations.
And there are all kinds of them! A whole world of them – separations! I dare say each one contains some degree of pain and anguish.

And so these are my thoughts in the middle of this one.

There is another separation coming and it is the end all of all separations. It’s hideous, I tell you!  Hideous! I pray against it nearly daily for this one or that one or many ones. Scripture calls it the second death. The first death is bad enough! But the second one! No human words can describe the horror of it! And ALL humans of responsible understanding are subject to it. Moreover, it’s a personal decision to miss it or not miss it and none of us can know for another, only for ourselves can we KNOW. We can have 99.99% confidence for another if that One lives a testified life; and we long for that, like nothing else!

And so here’s the crux of my plea: do you KNOW the second death has no hold on you? Because your family needs that 99.99% certainty. More than anything else in the entire universe I want confidence that every soul I love who passes through the first death will never see the second one! That separation would just be too permanent. You know what I mean? 

So after this weekend, we can text. We can talk. We can Face Time! It’s a bearable separation because it’s not permanent!  It’s the only kind of separation I want from them or anyone I love – temporary!

NO permanent separations! You know what I mean?

Selah  ~ ~ ~ Kathie

ABBA, I know it is Your will for all people to miss the second death; I know it is Your will that no one perish; that’s a given Your Word tells us so. And yet people do. In our circles of people in our earthly lives, we may be unsure of some and so I pray for mercy. I pray for intervention. Intervention that will open their hearts to truth and the courage to say Yes to You for forgiveness and life eternal. I pray it be so, ABBA, in YESHUA’s mighty name.